The Beggar
by Straightjacket Serenade
Summary: Sequel to The Traveler, picks up directly where The Traveler leaves off. Terra isn't happy with Rythian, and decides to get revenge in the most dangerous way possible. When the danger presented accidentally extends to herself as well, choices must be made on everyone's part.
1. Chapter 1

Lalna was still in shock by the time Rythian reached the castle.

"You're coming with me. _Now_," Rythian snarled. Lalna tore his eyes away from the mushroom cloud growing in the distance.

"Why should I?"

"I said _now_! You're going to help me fix Zoey, and it's _going_ to happen _now_!" Rythian screamed. With those words, the scientist's world fell apart. _Zoey? What had happened to Zoey?_ He didn't realize he had stopped flying until Rythian grabbed his arm and hauled him upwards again. Lalna let himself be dragged through the air to the rubble that was once Blackrock. At Rythian's instruction, he searched through the wreckage coating the bottom of the crater until he came across the body of Zoey. She was crumpled in on herself, curled around a life stone. One of her arms was entirely gone, and blood was pooling around her.

Rythian choked back a sob when he saw her, but he set to work immediately. Together, he and Lalna moved Zoey out of the blast zone and onto some grass quite a bit away. Every so often Lalna would need to get supplies from his own castle or help with wiring (if he pretended it was just another machine, the situation almost seemed normal), but for the most part, he had to stand by and watch the consequences for something that was never meant to happen.

It took the better part of a day, but Zoey was alive and she was going to stay that way if Rythian had anything to say about it. Lalna had set up a small shack with a bed and some basic life-monitoring equipment for Zoey in a nearby desert, built exactly to Rythian's specifications. It was far enough away from the blast zone that there would be no ill effects on anyone from radiation, and no one had to see the crater left. He helped carry Zoey there and watched as Rythian hooked her up to the machines.

Even though Lalna would insist it wasn't his fault the nuke went off, he still felt terrible. He made a mental note to cover up the hole later. Perhaps he could convince Sips and Sjin to help, or at least give him some dirt to work with.

Lalna was pulled from these thoughts by the feeling of cold steel on his temple. Rythian slowly moved to the front of Lalna, never once letting the mining laser move from his forehead.

"Lalna," He said through gritted teeth, "I want you to look at what happened. Look at her. This is your fault. You can press that fucking button all you want, Blackrock Castle is _gone_. I hope you're happy," He paused to draw a shaky breath. Was it Lalna's imagination, or were tears forming in his eyes?

"The only reason I haven't pulled this trigger and given you the fate you deserve," he continued, "As beautifully satisfying as it would be, it wouldn't _do_ anything. Killing you won't bring back my castle, it won't heal Zoey, it won't do anything. So instead, how about this—I leave you alone, you leave me alone, I won't come after you, and you won't come after me. Your choice is that, or I pull this trigger,"

"Deal," Lalna said. Secretly, he was relieved to officially be done with their ongoing war. He didn't want to see Rythian's retaliation to what had just happened.

Rythian's shoulders sagged, and he looked relieved. "Good. Now get the hell out of my sight," He spat, but there was a certain sadness to it that made him seem older, more tired. He was truly done trying to avenge the Old World.

Lalna flew back to his castle, exhausted. All thoughts of the missing remote had escaped him while at the blast zone, but now he realized it was something he should look into. He was convinced he still had it somewhere. He didn't want to find the remote so he could keep it, but destroying it would provide some much-needed closure to the ordeal.

* * *

A week had passed since the explosion. Zoey was doing considerably better than before, however she still wasn't able to leave her bed. She was asleep most of the time, but when she was awake there was no stopping the seemingly endless questions about her new mechanical parts.

Rythian was by no means happy with what had happened, but he was relieved things seemed to be going normally. Even with his new surroundings, he had managed to pick up a routine. Wake up, check on Zoey, hunt for food, check on Zoey, gather materials, and check on Zoey one last time before bed. He had spent a long day mining, and was about to retire to his bed when he decided to go talk to Teep. Conveniently, to get to Teep's hut he had to pass the infirmary where Zoey was housed.

He shouldn't have seen a flash of silver in the sand. He shouldn't have felt the ground lurch beneath him. He shouldn't have been on his knees in front of the infirmary, digging at the ground. He shouldn't have been angry enough to destroy anything in his path when he found the source of the flash.

None of this should have happened, but happen it did, and now the only thing on Rythian's mind was destroying Lalna for leaving him the nuke remote.


	2. Chapter 2

Lalna had been making repairs to his mining laser when he heard an explosion. He rushed outside to see a huge hole blown into the side of his castle. He barely had time to register the figure standing in the smoking hole before he was flat on his back, pinned down with a red matter katar biting into the flesh at his throat.

"I _warned_ _you_!" Rythian howled. "We had a _truce_! We were done, and you leave me _this_? What if _Zoey_ had found this?" He paused to slam the remote onto Lalna's chest, expelling from his lungs the little breath Lalna had managed to draw in after he'd been tackled. "I warned you what would happen if you brought this up again!"

"No, Ryth, I-" Lalna managed to choke out before the katar was pushed down harder. Lalna couldn't breathe, and he thought he could feel blood trickling down his neck.

"I want you to give me one good reason I should let you _miserable excuse_ for a human being live," Rythian lifted the pressure on the katar slightly.

Lalna gasped for air. "I didn't have the remote! I didn't press the button! Rythian, you have to believe me, I didn't do this. None of this is my fault!"

Rythian had been calming down until the least sentence. "Not your _fault_? Lalna, if you didn't have the remote, that means you left it where someone else could get it. That's _entirely_ your fault!" He said, but he sounded uncertain. He wanted to believe Lalna.

"That may be, but I didn't push the button. Rythian, I can help you. If you let me up, I'll help you find who _did_ take the remote. They were cocky enough to have left it at your home; they were probably stupid enough to have left some kind of clue as to who they are,"

Rythian narrowed his eyes. "Lalna, I swear to god, if you're lying-"

"Rythian, I'm not in any position to lie. I want to help you," _I also want to find out who snuck into my lab, and how this person stole my remote_, he added silently.

"Fine," Rythian spat as he got off of Lalna and removing the katar from his throat. He kept it at his side instead of sheathing it, however, and watched Lalna cautiously. He didn't entirely trust the scientist.

Lalna sat up, sending the remote tumbling into his lap. On its way down, he caught a glimpse of the color he'd come to hate over the years. He picked up the remote to flip it over, and his blood ran cold.

"Rythian, I don't suppose you put this here as a joke, did you?" He asked, voice shaking. He handed the remote over, and Rythian almost dropped it when he saw what was on the back. A piece of paper had been folded up and taped there, with a single marking on the front.

"So you recognize the . . . _ink_ used for this, too?" Rythian asked. He hesitated to use the word ink, but he also didn't want to accept what was used to write.

"Not as well as you, I suppose. What does the rest of the note say?"

"I'm not sure I want to know," Rythian said. He unfolded the paper anyways but only after taking one last long look at the eye drawn in enderblood on the page.

**_Dear Rythian, _**

**_I_****_'_****_ll assume you brought this remote to Lalna to accuse him of its appearance. If you haven_****_'_****_t already murdered him in cold blood, tell him hello for me. _**

**_I wrote to tell you that you might want to pack up your things and find a nice funeral tuxedo soon. I_****_'_****_ve been talking with our queen, and She just happened to find out about a certain rogue Enderchild _****_abomination_****_ who is in a relationship with a human girl, and who has been killing his brethren without just cause._**

**_She was not happy._**

**_She is coming to destroy you and anyone near you very, very soon. If you try to run, She will follow you. She will not let you get away that easy._**

**_Let me know what kind of flowers you and your friends want on your graves when this whole thing blows over. See you soon, little brother._**

**_-T_**

"Maybe it's a different 'T'," Lalna said hopefully. "Toby, maybe? Or Teep?"

Rythian ignored him. "This isn't good," Rythian said when he'd finished reading. "This is very, very bad,"

"What? What's she talking about?" Lalna asked, trying to look at the note still in Rythian's hand. Thankfully, it was written in regular squid ink, but that didn't make its message any better.

"The Queen. The Queen knows about me. I knew it'd happen eventually, but why so soon?"

"What queen?" Lalna asked, exasperated.

"Not what queen, _the_ Queen. The Queen of the End. The Queen of . . . of my people," He finished, grimacing when he admitted to his relation with the endermen.

"Why is she so mad? Couldn't Terra be lying?"

"Technically, I shouldn't exist. I'm not sure how or why I do, but in the Queen's eyes, I'm an abomination. Polluting the blood of Her precious endermen with something lesser like humans, to Her that's unthinkable. The fact that She thinks I'm in a relationship with Zoey isn't exactly helping, either. As far as She's concerned, I'm a mistake, and one that needs to be fixed soon.

"As for Terra lying, I'm not sure. I suppose it's possible, but it's not likely. The way we almost killed her last time, she's going to try to do anything to get revenge. It's difficult to get in touch with the Queen, but it's not impossible, and with the amount of power Terra has, I wouldn't put it past her. I know how I can find out, though," Rythian proceeded to outline a plan to Lalna, detailing exactly what needed to be built and how quickly.

Within an hour, they had a trap built and ready. Rythian set some Ender Pearls under a small platform as bait, then sat back and waited. An enderman came quickly, wandering underneath to take the pearls. Rythian lept out, calling for Lalna to pull a switch that caused a ring of water to fall from the ceiling around them. Meanwhile, Rythian unsheathed his Enderbane and began questioning the enderman.

Lalna looked on in amazement. Rythian was speaking to the enderman in its language, whatever that may be. Consisting of mostly growls and hisses, it was impossible for Lalna to follow what was said. He watched a water-distorted picture of Rythian asking the enderman a question, the enderman shaking its head and backing off, then Rythian threatening it with the Enderbane.

This went on back and forth several times, until Rythian became angrier. He was making wild, erratic movements with his hands, and his face was contorted in anger. He was shouting now, and although Lalna didn't know exactly what was being said, he could tell from their tones that Rythian was furious and the enderman was terrified. Finally, Rythian could take it no more. He shouted something before drawing his sword and bringing it up and around in a wide arc.

It barely touched the enderman. A thin purple line bloomed on its chest, but aside from that, the enderman was physically unharmed. Rythian said one more thing to it before signaling to Lalna to shut off the water.

The second the water was gone, so was the enderman. It had teleported up and over the hills nearby in three seconds flat.


	3. Chapter 3

"Why'd you do that?" Lalna asked when Rythian walked over.

"Do what?"

"Let it go. It'll go straight back to-"

"It'll go straight back to the End to tell the Queen I know about her little plan. We can't stop Her from coming, but we might as well make it known that we aren't afraid."

Even though Lalna disagreed with Rythian's assumption that he wasn't scared, he said nothing. Rythian started to walk away. "What did the enderman say?" Lalna asked, hurrying to catch up with him.

"Not much I couldn't have guessed. The Queen knows about me, she knows I'm living in a small village with about a dozen others, one of whom she thinks I'm in love with. She doesn't plan on letting me live, and if she _accidentally_ kills the rest of you, it's no big deal to her. She'd see your deaths as mercy, ending what must be an entirely unbearable life as a human.

"She's going to come soon, but she needs to construct a portal in the End first. That portal will lead to one already in this world, but there's no telling where her exit portal will be."

"And the farther from you it is, the better, right?"

"Wrong."

Lalna was confused. "But the farther away the portal is, the longer it will take her to get to you."

"True, but what if there are villages between her portal and myself? She's going to destroy anything she sees on the way here, and I'd like to minimize the amount of deaths I'm responsible for."

There was another long pause before Lalna asked the question on both their minds. "How long do we have?"

"That depends. Creating a portal to the End without a base is nearly impossible, but creating one _from_ the end is even harder. And to make one powerful enough for something Her size . . . Trust me, we have some time. Best-case scenario, just under a year. Worst-case, just over two months."

"Two _months_? That doesn't sound like much time to me," Lalna muttered.

"You don't need to be worrying about time. I'm not letting anything happen to anyone here. If She wants me, then She can have me—but only me. I'm not going to stand by while She kills everyone here."

"So you have a plan to kill her?"

"Not at all."

"So how are we getting rid of her?"

"We aren't. I'm going to spend my next few weeks at Blackrock, making all the weapons and protection I can carry. After that, I'm leaving. I'll get as far away from this place as I can before She finds me. I'll put up what fight I can, but," Rythian stopped talking and shrugged.

They had nearly arrived at the lab, but Lalna stopped dead in his tracks. "You can't be serious."

"What?" Rythian was genuinely confused. He turned to face the scientist, and saw disbelief on his face.

"You're just going to _leave_?"

"What else could I do?"

"Stay here! Fight her with us. We could help you. If the options are that or being dragon food, I'm sure everyone here would work together."

Rythian smiled sadly. "Lalna, I don't want to hurt any of you. Your optimism is great, but the Queen is too powerful. I'll leave in six weeks or so. You aren't stopping me."

Lalna sighed. "Six weeks? That's it?"

"Give or take. It all depends on how much weaponry I can build between now and then. I won't be longer than two months."

Lalna smiled as well. "Funny, I always pictured the day I heard about your imminent death as much happier."

"Lalna, I want you to promise me something," Rythian said. The smile was gone from his face. "I'm not going to tell anyone about this. All they'll think is that I've decided to build more weapons that normal. I need you to promise not to tell anyone, either."

"But when you're gone-"

"When I'm gone, and you're sure I'm too far away to be caught up with, you can tell them. I don't want anyone trying something stupid like sneaking along with me, and I _definitely_ don't want the guilt I'd get over the next weeks if anyone else knew. I'm serious, Lalna. You can't tell anyone."

Lalna hesitated, but reluctantly nodded. "I won't."

"Good," He hesitated before continuing. "One more thing."

"Yes?"

"When I'm gone, there's no telling what Zoey will do. More likely than not, she'll try to come after me. You can't let her do that, Lalna. She's the only one here who's so determined to help me that she might actually catch up to me, even if I do have a head start. You need to calm her down and keep her from doing anything stupid."

"Do you really think you can just leave?"

"It'll be hard, but if it's to save the rest of you, then yes. I think I can."

"Good luck."

"Lalna, you're acting like I leave tonight. Look on the bright side, I still have two months," Rythian said. He was smiling reassuringly, but there was fear in his eyes.

"I don't see why another whole two months stuck with you is a bright side," Lalna said, and promptly cried out when Rythian elbowed him in the shoulder.

"I should get back to my own place. Weapons to build, defenses to create, you know," Rythian said as he folded the note up and put it in his pocket. "I'll see you later," he said before he flew off.

Lalna could only hope it was true.

* * *

"Rythian, are you alright?" Zoey asked. She rarely saw the mage anymore. He was constantly in a corner of their new fortress, building odd devices that looked like weapons. Zoey couldn't be sure what they really were because she'd never seen them before, but that didn't stop her from worrying.

"I'm fine, Zoey," He replied. The same standard answer that she had gotten for a week straight was not going to cut it this time.

"Rythian, look at me." The mage obliged, and Zoey saw he had dark half-circles under his eyes from lack of sleep. He was jumpy and nervous as well—the slightest noise would scare him and send his hand flying to his sword, which he was now never without. "Rythian, something's obviously bothering you. Please tell me."

"Zoey, I don't want you worrying about anything you don't need to. Trust me, if I think you might need to know, I'll tell you, but for now ignorance is bliss."

"Can you at least tell me what you've been building? They look like weapons."

"It's nothing. I would really appreciate if you'd stop asking. Please," He added when he saw Zoey's annoyed expression.

"Fine. I'll stop asking and everything, but you need some sleep," She decided, grabbing his wrist and dragging him towards their beds. "And when was the last time you ate? Rythian, whatever you're doing over there, you're worrying about it too much. Get some rest, alright?"

He could not help but smile at Zoey's stubborn motherliness. Normally he would have resisted, but she was right; he _did_ need sleep. He had been working on the weapons for four weeks, and had gotten what, maybe 100 hours of sleep total? Possibly less, but it was certainly not more. Besides, it would be nice to leave her thinking she had helped him before he had to go. He let her guide him to the bed, and was asleep almost as soon as he lay down.

His dreams were anything but peaceful.

For a while, he thought he was awake. He had been in his new fortress with Zoey, talking with her and Teep. He saw a creeper outside the wall and left to go kill it. When he got close, however, it grew and changed color, becoming an enderman. Rythian backed up, straight into another enderman. He looked around, and saw them moving towards him in terrifying numbers. He ran back to the fortress to protect Zoey, and barely made it over the wall before the sky grew darker. The sound of the endermen surrounding their home was almost deafening, but somehow what came next managed to be louder.

A roar filled the air, petrifying and inhuman. Zoey spoke from Rythian's side. "Rythian, what's happening? I'm scared. You're supposed to protect me." When he turned to check on her, however, she was gone. The roar sounded again, closer. Rythian spun back around to see a person standing on the wall, but it was too dark to see whom it was. The sky began glowing purple, and it became all too evident that the 'thing' standing on the wall was not a person.

It was Terra.

When she saw Rythian, she threw back her head and laughed. It was not a normal laugh, and not the insanity-filled laugh from when he had seen her last, in the little underground room. This was a laugh of pure triumph, and it was terrifying. It echoed and bounced; magnifying in volume the longer it went on. Rythian screwed his eyes shut and held his hands over his ears, doing what little he could to block it out. Just before the noise became unbearably loud, it ceased. Rythian opened his eyes and saw Terra staring at him, eyes shining purple like a neon sign. She smiled.

"Goodbye, brother," she said, just before a shadow passed over them both and the world erupted in dragon fire.


	4. Chapter 4

Rythian awoke screaming and flailing in the tangled, knotted mess of bed sheets. When he realized he was fine, he stood and straightened his clothes. Terra's laugh rang in his head, and he could not stop thinking about what Zoey had said to him. Zoey, who had woken up several hours earlier, had heard Rythian from the other side of the wall and was rushing to check on him as fast as her hover boots would allow.

"Rythian, what happened? I heard screaming!" She was frantic by the time she reached him.

"Nothing's wrong. I'm perfectly alright."

"Then what was all the screaming? That wasn't '_nothing'_, Rythian."

"I woke up and saw a spider climbing near the bed." The lie came to mind easily.

"Teep would've shot any spiders before they could get all the way to the bed."

"Teep must've missed one."

Zoey was hesitant. "Rythian, if you're lying to me . . ."

"I'm not lying. Zoey, I'm fine. I'm not hurt, am I?" Zoey didn't answer, and Rythian took that to mean she had given up on the conversation. She began to walk away, but Rythian stopped her. "Zoey, one last thing," he called.

"Yes?"

He paused, thinking back to his dream. "You know I'll always protect you, right? I'll always do whatever I can to keep you safe."

She gave him an odd look. "Of course, Rythian. Are you sure you're alright? You know, if you had a bad dream-"

"It was a _spider_ and I'm _fine_," Rythian cut her off before she could keep talking. "Now, I have some things I need to do today, so if you don't mind, I should go."

"Where're you going?"

"Places."

"What're you doing?"

"Things."

"Can I come?"

Rythian sighed. He was getting tired of the rapid-fire questioning. Zoey was great, but sometimes she reminded him of a puppy that had not seen its owner in a long time. "Zoey, I'm going pretty far from here."

"I can keep up! Come on, are you going to go meet someone? Who?"

"Zoey, you can't come!" The sudden outburst had taken even Rythian by surprise. Zoey looked hurt.

"Oh. Okay then. You know, I think Teep needs something. I should probably go, too." She left, leaving Rythian feeling terrible. He hadn't wanted to make her feel bad, but he had to get things done, something he simply couldn't do with her tailing him all day.

Rythian found out he had slept nearly ten hours. It was almost noon by the time he was ready to leave. Once he had shouted a quick goodbye to Zoey, he was off.

The flight to Lalna's castle was a long one. With nothing particularly interesting to look at along the way, Rythian turned to his thoughts. He wasn't entirely sure why he was going to see Lalna; in fact, if Rythian wanted, he could have left Yog's Knot right then.

He knew he could, and he knew he probably should have, but the truth was that he didn't want to leave, not then, not at all. He knew when the time came he would, but until then he was going to stay right where he was.

Lalna's castle was approaching quickly. Ever since the nuke incident Lalna didn't have any reason to use a force field, so Rythian was able to fly right over the wall. It took little searching to find the scientist, what with all the noise coming from one room in particular.

Rythian did not have much to talk about, but Lalna had seemingly endless questions about the Queen of the End.

"Why don't you just go to the end, instead of chancing her coming out in a populated location here?"

"Lalna, have you ever been to the end?" Lalna shook his head. "In the end, the Queen has these . . . well, I guess I could call them crystals. When She is near them, they replenish Her health and make Her stronger. It would be almost impossible to defeat Her in the End without destroying the crystals first. Of course, here there are no crystals. It won't make Her much easier to defeat, but I'll take whatever help I can get."

The questioning continued like that for some time, Rythian answering what he was able. There was not much point to the visit, but Rythian could care less. He was simply glad to be talking with Lalna without any ulterior motives. By the time they had finished talking, Rythian was certainly calmer about leaving; Lalna had made sure of that. Lalna had also told him not to let the weapons rule his last bit of time here, and to spend a little more time with Zoey. Rythian grudgingly agreed with Lalna; he had not been spending any time with her. She deserved that at least, if not a warning of his departure.

By the time he had gotten back to his new home, it was much later in the day. His first thought was to look for Zoey, but she was sitting on the wall waiting for him when he returned. He sat next to her and smiled.

She grinned. "So when do we leave to go fight the Enderbabe?"

Rythian felt like his stomach had been left behind on the flight back. "What—what do you mean?"

"The Enderbabe! The one you were telling Lalna about. We have to fight her, so we're leaving. When?"

Rythian avoided the question with one of his own. "How do you know about any of this?"

That was the million-dollar question. She glanced away from Rythian, and avoided eye contact with him when she spoke. "Well, I might have decided to test out my rocket boots by following you, and when I saw you were going to Lalna's castle I might have waited outside because my super-cool robot hearing accidentally switched itself on."

"You have robot hearing?" Rythian asked. She nodded excitedly. "Actually, that's not the point. How much exactly did you hear?"

"Not much, only the bits about the Enderbabe-"

"Hold on. Could you not call Her 'Enderbabe'? She's the Queen of the End, the Enderdragon, and you really should address Her as such. While I do not particularly agree with everything . . . _anything_ She does, don't call her Enderbabe. It's disrespectful."

"Right, right. So, I heard about this Enderchick that wants to destroy you, and that you've been making weapons so we can take her down. I also heard we're going to have to leave pretty soon to do it, or else she'll try to kill everyone else here. So, yeah, I didn't hear much."

Rythian sighed. "Zoey, that was all Lalna and I were talking about. You heard everything," he sighed. Why did this next part have to be so _difficult_? "So I suppose you also heard that I have to face the Queen on my own?"

Zoey hesitated. "Well, yeah, I mean I _heard_ that part, but I just figured you didn't want him worried that we'd both be gone. I mean, it's pretty hard to live without my awesomeness around, so I thought we could run out, beat this Enderchick, and come back before anyone else even noticed we were gone."

"Zoey, I— actually, yeah. That's exactly my plan. I'll let you know when it's time to leave, alright?"

"Great! You just watch, we'll be back in no time," Zoey said as she jumped down from the wall and left to do who-knows-what. Rythian hated lying to her, but he simply could not let her come with him. It was too dangerous, no matter how easy Zoey was making it sound. If he made it back, that would be great. If not . . . well, Zoey could take care of herself. He would have to leave some day soon, early in the morning to stop her from getting suspicious.

As he descended the wall, his thoughts were drawn back to his dream from the night before. Even though it was several hours later, he could still remember Terra's laugh perfectly. It, unfortunately, was not the kind of thing that was easily forgotten. He had only made it halfway across camp before Zoey came rushing back, gesturing to the screen on her arm.

"Rythian?" there was worry in her voice. "Rythian, I keep picking up motion outside the camp."

"Who is it?" Rythian asked. He was not in the mood for any visitors.

"I'm not sure. The signal doesn't stay in one place. It will show up, move for a second, then disappear and reappear closer."

"Probably just an enderman," Rythian said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

"Rythian, I can't pick up mob movement with this. I don't know who's coming, but it's not an enderman."

"Well just go che—" Rythian stopped talking when he realized what could be moving like that.

"Zoey, I want you to go hide. Outside the camp, somewhere that can't be found easily. Take Teep."

"But Rythian—"

"I said _go_! And please, hurry!"

Zoey ran off, grabbing Teep's arm and leading him over the wall. Rythian stood and faced the wall, katar drawn and at the ready. He tensed when he heard noise outside the wall. It happened in an instant—a flash of purple in front of him, and he launched his katar. It spun end over end, until it hit just to the left of its intended destination with a _thud_. A sharp scream followed.

Terra was on her knees, a katar sticking out of her arm. At least, Rythian _thought_ it was Terra; her face was scarred so badly that it was difficult to recognize her. The fact that she was screaming and trying to pull the katar from her arm wasn't helping the identification.

He rushed over and knocked her backwards, planting a foot on her chest. She tried to keep the arm with the sword in the air, but it hit the ground and she screamed again. Up close, Rythian saw that she was much more hurt than he had first thought. Cuts and bruises covered her arms and head, and her clothes were shredded. Barely recognizable, but definitely Terra.

"Give me one reason not to kill you right now," Rythian snarled.

She looked up at him, eyes clouding over. "Rythian, I need your help. Please," she wheezed, before her eyes rolled back in their sockets.


	5. Chapter 5

"Wha . . . What's happening?" Terra asked when she regained consciousness. She tried to move her head to look around, and found herself lying on top of something hard and metal in a corner of Rythian's home.

Ah, you're awake. Finally," Rythian turned and walked over to her. He looked her over once, and Terra noticed his eyes linger on her face.

"You recognize those scars, don't you, Rythian?" Terra smiled, but one corner of her mouth, pulled down by the scar grazing it, didn't lift properly. "You know what these are from? _Whom_ these are from? Enderbane wounds don't ever heal completely, you know."

"Shut up," he growled. "Now, I want you to tell me why you're here, and why you're so hurt."

"And if I refuse?" Rythian moved to Terra's side and laid a hand on the bandages where his katar had been stuck. She hissed in pain.

"May I remind you that you've nearly killed me and every other person I know? If I'm correct, you are now trying a second time. You're in no position to refuse."

Terra smirked despite the pain she must have been in. "I believe I told you when you so unceremoniously greeted me—I need your help."

"With what?" Rythian was suspicious, and with good reason.

"I want you to look at me and honestly tell me you don't think I'm trouble."

"I don't think you're in trouble," Rythian answered automatically.

She was legitimately surprised. "What?"

"The last time you were here, you used morphing spells. How do I know you're not using them to look hurt? Besides, what could you possibly need my help with?"

"I'd ask you to please stop touching the wound your sword caused first," Terra said through gritted teeth.

"Oh, I'm sorry, does this hurt?" he asked, squeezing the bandage once for emphasis before letting go. Terra let out a sharp yelp and glared at him before speaking.

"I'll assume you got my letter," she said. Rythian nodded. "The Queen wants to kill any half-enderman She can find. Now, I'll admit my plan was less than thought out, and—"

"Wait," Rythian said, cutting her off. "You're not actually saying what I think you're saying. You, the great Terra, forgot to take into account how the Queen would treat _you_? You're half-enderman, too. She'd want you dead, not just me."

"You think I don't know that _now_?" Terra snapped. "Before you jump to conclusions, by the way, I don't think you have quite the right idea. I was using an Eye of Ender to send messages to the Queen. Nothing face to face- I didn't want Her knowing I was half human like you. I was careful about it, too—never once let my identity slip. I don't know how she found out, but I have a feeling an enderman ratted me out." Terra took a deep breath.

"Now that She knows what I am, She isn't happy. She also isn't ecstatic that I've been tricking her. She wants me dead now, too."

"What, may I ask, were you expecting?" Rythian asked. Terra didn't answer. "Well, what do you need help with?"

"Isn't it obvious? The Queen is out to kill us. Either _we_ die, or _She_ does. The way I see it, we can either split up and let Her kill us both, or we can work toge-"

"You honestly think I'd work with _you_?" Rythian screamed, cutting her off. "Terra, you tried to kill me! You just admitted to supplying the Queen with information about me! How do I know this isn't some poorly disguised plot to lead the Queen here? How could I possibly trust you?" He thought for a moment, then gave a small smile. "Besides, _I_ don't need help. I'm making weapons, and I'm leaving soon. She won't kill the others if I'm not near them."

"Rythian, I don't like this any more than you do. Do you think I actually trust you not to leave me for dead in the middle of a fight? As much as I want to leave right now and never look back, I want to live a little bit more. The human instinct for survival is always going to be our strongest motive."

"True, but you aren't human," he hissed.

Terra looked him in the eyes, and he was startled to see something he'd never dreamed of in Terra—fear. "Rythian, please. I don't want to die. You don't either, I'm sure. You can believe what you want about your own powers, but I honestly don't think I can take the Queen down on my own. No one else would willingly help me; even if I could find someone who would give speaking to me a second thought, they wouldn't volunteer for a suicide mission like this. I thought since you have to fight Her anyways, you could help me. You really are my last hope, Rythian," Terra pleaded.

Rythian turned away. "I'd rather die alone than fight to save you."

"If you help me with this, you'd never hear from me again."

That got his attention. "What do you mean?"

"If you help me and we don't die fighting, I'll leave Yog's Knot and never look back. I'll stop trying to kill you and anyone that lives here. You'd never see or hear from me again."

"If I leave you to fight alone, you'll die. I'd never hear from you again anyways."

"Rythian," Terra tried to push herself into a sting position, and winced when she put pressure on her freshly bandaged arm.

"Don't lean on that, you aren't making it heal any faster," he said, walking over to check on her.

She brushed him aside and sat up anyways. "Rythian, what about the others? Zoey?"

Rythian's eyes blazed. "You leave her out of this! The whole reason I'm leaving to do this alone is so she can be safe! So they can all be safe!"

"Rythian, I already told you, the Queen isn't just angry with us. She's angry with anyone that has interacted with us, especially Zoey. She hates that you're in love with a human."

"I'm not in love with her," Rythian muttered.

"Either way, if she comes after us and kills us both, the next step would be to kill everyone here. They wouldn't be safe. The only thing you're doing by running away to fight her on your own is condemning everyone else here."

"No!" he yelled. "That's not true! That can't be true!"

"We both know it is. Rythian, if you help me, Zoey would be safe. On the off chance you _do_ manage to defeat the Queen on your own, she would still be safe. Of course, you aren't that optimistic. You think you're going to die, don't you? You don't think She can be defeated at all. You need to help me, to keep them safe.

Rythian said nothing for a long moment. Terra didn't realize she'd been holding her breath until she let it out when Rythian spoke again. "I need to think about it," he said finally.

Terra grew panicked. "What? But Rythian, I—"

"Terra. You're lucky I'm giving this a second thought in the first place. Actually, you're lucky I didn't kill you when I first saw you. The fact that you're here, having a civilized conversation with me is nothing short of a miracle. Don't push it," Rythian said. Terra nodded. "Now, I need to talk to the others about this. At the very least, Lalna should know."

"But what about me?"

"It's been almost two months since I last saw you. You have to have lived somewhere in that time. Go there, and check back in three days. I'll have an answer then."

"I suppose letting my arm heal here first is out of the question?"

"_Leave_," he groaned. With that simple command, Terra got up off the table she had been laying on and started off towards the wall. Rythian noticed her gait was uneven, and she was still limping slightly where she had been hut many months ago. She teleported to the top of the wall, then out of Rythian's sight.

He was not sad to see her go.


	6. Flashback Part 1

_He will pay. No one does this to me and lives. I will kill Rythian._

These three thoughts had been cycling in Terra's head with little variation for the past two days. To be fair, Terra's first day after she'd escaped was entirely spent passed out in an underground cave, using what little strength she still had to try and heal herself. She had not been able to get a good look at herself since then, but from the pain she was in it was evident she was in bad shape.

Her back and stomach were both cut deeply with Rythian's Enderbane in the fight, and they burnt at the slightest touch. She could not use the hand that had touched the flat of the blade. Her other arm was cut, and while it had not been with the Enderbane, it still hurt to move. Her leg, the same one that had been cut by the damned forest spirit all those months ago, had also been cut with the Enderbane. She limped quite a bit on that side.

Her head, of course, was a different matter entirely. She had not come across any water she could use to see her reflection, so she had no idea what damage Rythian had done. She had tried to touch her face so she could at least get an idea of the wounds, but the slightest brush of fingers on her cheek nearly had her screaming. Whatever damage the Enderbane had done to her face was definitely serious. If she left them to heal on their own, they would certainly leave her face scarred and disfigured.

It was for that reason that she focused most of her healing powers away from her face. She wanted Rythian to see what he had done to her. Besides, if it were a contest between her already lacking beauty and her ability to walk, she would choose to heal her legs and walk every time.

In those two days since her escape, she had also been thinking of ways to get revenge on Rythian, and she thought she had come up with the perfect way. All she needed (for now) was an Ender Pearl and some obsidian.

For now, however, all she needed was a place to rest. She was tired; the severity of her injuries meant any amount of walking exhausted her. A small outcropping in a nearby mountain looked inviting, and she gave in to fatigue and pain, and made her way to the cave.

She knew she should have turned back when she saw the Ender Pearl. It was lying on the floor, as if someone had dropped it. Terra's first thoughts were those of traps—who leaves an Ender Pearl on the floor? She realized she was being ridiculous; someone probably just killed an enderman and forgot to take the pearl.

She was still wary of taking the pearl, however. Even if she needed one, something seemed disrespectful about taking one from a freshly killed Enderman. People could say what they wanted about her, but she held a deep respect for her Ender side. Ender Pearls were almost sacred to Endermen, and she would never take one without permission, especially from someone dead. She would just need to remember to ask for one from the next Enderman she saw.

There was still the matter of what would happen to it, though. If she left it out, a human might stumble across it and take it. Deciding to set it in a small crack in the wall, she bent down to pick it up, when the floor slid out from under her. She fell several feet, landing hard on her side. She cried out in pain and held her arm, which felt like it was on fire from the way it had hit the ground. By the time she had looked back up, the panel was sliding back over her head. There was a single torch in the room, providing just enough light to see that the walls were made of bedrock.

The pain from the fall was starting to kick in. She must have hit her head on the ground when she landed, because she was suddenly incredibly tired. She could see the Ender Pearl lying on the ground next to her, with a large crack down the middle. A vague sense of anger registered in her brain before her vision went dark.

* * *

"I knew these traps were going to get me in trouble one day."

Terra opened her eyes, and the world around her slowly swam into focus. She was lying on a bed, staring up at a wooden ceiling. It took her a moment to realize she was in someone's house. She looked to the side and saw a man turned away from her, mixing something at a brewing stand. Her heart leapt into her throat, and she scrambled to get to her feet. She had woken up in a stranger's home, there was no way that was a good thing.

She looked around for a window to teleport out of, and found the house lacking. Her next thought was the door, but the man had seen her and was standing in front of it. Terra's next thought was to fight, but a wave of dizziness crashed over her, and she fell backwards onto the bed.

The man rushed over. "Oh shit, are you alright? You really shouldn't be moving; you're hurt pretty badly, you know. What happened?"

"Need to . . . Go . . . Gonna . . . Hurt me," Terra muttered. She tried to stand, but the man placed a hand on her shoulder and held her on the bed.

"Who's going to hurt you? Look, you need to calm down. Here," He left, and returned with a bottle. "Drink this. It'll help with the pain, trust me."

Terra pushed the bottle away. "No, I don't want . . . You're gonna hurt . . ."

"Drink," He commanded, pushing the bottle towards her mouth. Terra didn't have the strength to refuse, she could only drink, and hope the man wasn't giving her poison.

Once Terra had drained the bottle, she sighed. The potion made her feel very warm, but it was not an unpleasant feeling. Her head stopped hurting, and she was less dizzy. Remembering her current situation, she looked at the man in front of her.

"Who are you?" she asked, eyes narrowing.

He put his hands up in front of him. "Whoa, now is that any way to treat the person who just saved you?"

"I didn't need saving. Now who are you?"

"I'd argue on weather or not you needed saving. It didn't look like you were getting out of my trap any time soon, you know."

"Your _trap_? I need to get the fuck out of here," Terra said, standing and pushing past the man. He grabbed her shoulder.

"Just wait, I think you owe me-"

"Get off me! I don't owe you jack shit. Don't make me hurt you."

"Look, just sit down. I didn't mean to hurt you. It wasn't a trap meant for you. Just let explain, please."

Terra would have protested, but the effects of the potion were beginning to wear off. "Fine. You try anything funny and I'll kill you, got that?"

"Wouldn't dream of it. I _do _have standards, you know," he laughed, but then ducked when Terra swung at him. "Wow, alright, you're not the joking type. Noted. Now, what would you like me to explain first?"

"How about why the hell you had a pit trap in that cave?"

"I don't suppose you're from the town nearby?" he asked. Terra shook her head. "So you wouldn't know about me. That's probably for the better, actually. Long story short, as long as I keep Endermen away from the town, I'm allowed to live here peacefully. The townspeople don't bother me, and I don't intentionally bother them. Of course, I'm not sure how many are bothered by me simply living here, but that's a different matter," he said, waving a dismissive hand. "Anything else?"

"Why'd you take me here?"

"Well, I couldn't just leave you in that pit, could I?"

"You could have left me in the cave."

"You were hurt. I felt bad. Are you honestly complaining that I might have just saved your life?"

"I'm not complaining, I'm just suspicious. I'm not used to people having any kind of sympathy for me."

He gave a bitter smile. "Me either. I suppose I just did what I wished others would do for me."

Something the man had said earlier clicked in Terra's head. "Uh, what did you say you did?"

"I hunt Enderman," he replied, confused by the look of anger growing on Terra's face.

"You willingly kill Endermen for a living?" she asked. Her voice was icy.

"Yeah. It's not fun. I mean, I hate every second of it, but I don't exactly have a choice." Confusion and minor fear were evident on his face.

That seemed to calm Terra down a bit. "What do you mean you don't have a choice? If you hate it—which you should—you can stop."

He laughed. "Oh, if only it were that simple. The townspeople think I'm a freak, and would gladly come kill me if they could. The only reason they haven't yet is because this whole area seems to attract Endermen. I can kill them easily, unfortunately, and as long as I keep them away from the town, I'm allowed to live here without too much trouble."

Questions raced through Terra's mind. It took a moment before she could settle on one. "Why do the townspeople hate you?"

"My reasons are my own." His tone matched Terra's when she had asked about his occupation.

"Why don't you leave? You could stop killing the Endermen, and the townspeople wouldn't bother you. A life on the road isn't as bad as it might sound."

"I have too much here. So much has gone into this house, I can't just leave it. Besides, I shouldn't have to leave my home because they aren't happy with me. It's more of a pride thing than any real material reason. I've also always felt some kind of attachment to this area. I really don't know why, but it's like I'm _supposed_ to be here, you know?"

Terra nodded. "I understand. What's your name?"

"You can call me J. I don't particularly care for my real name."

"J, I have one more question. How long have you known?"

A look of shock flashed over the man's face, almost imperceptible in its speed. "I don't know what you mean."

"Yes, you do. How long have you known you're part Enderman? Don't lie to me, J."

J sat next to Terra on the bed. "What gave it away?"

"A little bit of everything. Your height and your appearance, mostly."

"What's wrong with my appearance?" he asked, standing up. He wore a dark green jacket and dark pants. On his hands were brown gloves—fingerless, she supposed, so he could use his sword and brewing table easier. It was only when he brought a hand up to his face that she noticed his eyes.

They looked like a failed morphing spell, but worse. One of his eyes was normal Enderman purple, the same as hers and Rythian's. The other, however, was an electric yellow-orange, almost resembling fire.

"Well, for one thing, there's your eye."

"You mean my eyes?"

"No, I mean _eye_. What happened there? Morphing spell or something?" She gestured towards the side with the yellow eye.

"Uh, yeah. Morphing spell. What about you? You're part Enderman too, right?"

If Terra was suspicious of J's sudden change of subject, it wasn't shown. "Observant. How could you tell?"

"Those scars. They're from an Enderbane, aren't they? I've never seen them that bad before. What happened?"

"A long story, and one I won't be going into."

"Oh, right," he said, a bit embarrassed. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry, I was just curious. I knew there are other Enderhumans like me, but I've never met one before, miss, uh . . . what did you say your name was, again?"

"I'm Terra."

J's curious demeanor vanished instantly, replaced with something resembling terror. "You . . . your name is Terra? You know, I actually have some things I need to get dome, so if you're feeling alright and able to move, you're welcome to go ahead and lea-"

"What's the rush?" Terra purred. She wasn't sure why J had started acting like this, but it would certainly be fun to find out. "J, you said so yourself, I'm hurt pretty badly. I shouldn't be moving. I think I'll stay right here for now."

J forced himself to look calm, something he managed to do impressively well. "Right. That's fine then. Don't move from this house. I think I'm going to go do something outside."

"J, what's wrong? You aren't _scared_ of me, are you? I've never met you, how could you possibly— _oh_," Terra said, sudden realization dawning on her. She grinned. "Could it be that you've heard of me? Has my reputation preceded me?"

"Actually, _you're_ part of the reason I have to stay so far from the town. They've heard of what you've done to other towns, and they think that because I'm part Enderman as well, I'll act the same way sooner or later. It's _your_ fault they hate me so much," J said. Anger was creeping into his voice.

"Oh, but J, you aren't really mad at _me_, are you?" Terra asked, her voice smooth. "You're mad at those humans in the town. They don't accept you. They call you a freak. You said they'd kill you if you stop protecting them. Of course, you and I have the same powers. With a bit of practice, you could be almost as powerful as I am; you could be powerful enough to show those humans that they have no right to push around someone of Ender blood. Strong enough to crush them like the worthless trash they are. What would you say to a sort of deal, J?"

There was a heavy pause before J spoke again. "I'm listening."


	7. Chapter 6

"No. Absolutely not."

"Well, I don't think we should-"

"Rythian, you're not honestly _considering_ this, are you? She tried to _kill us_! Rythian, Listen to me!" Lalna was shouting, watching as Rythian searched through some chests.

"Lalna, I am listening. I just think I know what I'm doing a bit better than you."

"Rythian, I came over here to give you the parts for that new weapon, but I'm not handing them over until you see reason. You can't do this! _Rythian_!"

"Lalna, I'd appreciate it if you didn't shout at me in my own home," Rythian said, walking away from the scientist. He was searching for the key to the stash of weapons he had created. Zoey had hidden it somewhere, and refused to tell Rythian where so he could not use them until they left.

"I think I have every right to shout in a life or death situation! Rythian, this is such an obvious trap. There is absolutely no way I am letting you go out to do this with Terra."

Rythian stopped searching and faced Lalna. "I've been thinking, and you're right. This is a really obvious trap. She'll get me alone and kill me."

Lalna sighed. "Good, you're coming to your sen-"

"But then I kept thinking," he continued. "Remember the last time she was here? She set up a really huge, elaborate trap. Even this time, she could have recovered, then come and killed us easily. Instead, she chose to alert the _Queen of the End_. Terra loves dramatic schemes, and something as simple as getting me alone like this doesn't seem like something she'd do. It's _too_ simple."

"What happened to protecting us? You said you were only leaving so you could keep us safe. I doubt teaming up with someone that wants us all dead is going to keep us safe."

Rythian paused. "Certain things have been brought to my attention that imply that, should I fail, you all would not be as safe as I had originally hoped."

"Did Terra tell you that? Because we both know that monster is completely full of—"

"Lalna, you just said I'm leaving because I want to keep you all safe. That's entirely right. I'm going to protect you all to the best of my ability, and as twisted as it is, this is the best way I can protect you. Teaming up with Terra is my best chance at defeating the Queen. You need to trust me."

Lalna sighed. "You need to think about this. When is Terra coming back for an answer?"

"I told her to be back here in three days."

"And when was that?"

Rythian hesitated before speaking. "About three days ago."

"_What_?" Lalna roared. "You waited until _now_ to tell me? Have you even mentioned this to anyone else? Tell me, when was I going to find out about this if I hadn't come over to bring you the weapon parts today?"

"Lalna, Zoey isn't very far away. Could you _please_ not yell like that?"

"How are you staying so calm about this? Rythian, your life is quite literally on the line here!"

"I'm in danger no matter what I do."

"Rythian, are you honestly going to do this? You're really going to go work with your attempted _murderer_ to — "

"Now boys, play nice."

Lalna couldn't keep a small noise from escaping his mouth when he heard Terra's voice. Even Rythian, who had been expecting her, had jumped a bit.

Terra appeared at the edge of the base. She grinned, but her eyes were apprehensive, and she didn't move any closer to the pair. "So Rythian, it's been three days. Do you have an answer?"

"His answer is no!" Lalna yelled. "Rythian is not going anywhere with you!"

"I'm sorry Lalna," Terra snarled, "I didn't know you are speaking for Rythian now. I believe I asked _Rythian _a question, and I wouldn't interrupt it I were you." Terra took a step forward, Lalna a step back. Even though there was more than 20 feet between them, Lalna was terrified.

"Terra, don't scare him. I'm going with you, but I have some conditions."

Terra narrowed her eyes. "Like what?"

"When this is all over, you can't come back. I never want to see you again. I never even want to hear your _name_ again, unless it's news of your death."

"A bit harsh," Terra muttered.

"Any grudges you might have against anyone here will be gone. You will not try to kill any of us, and you will not have anyone _else_ try to kill any of us. What you choose to or choose not to do will in no way influence our deaths. Got that?"

"Sure. You help me, I won't kill you. Now, I know you probably have some kind of big plan to keep the others safe while we fight the Queen, and I'm going to tell you right now whatever it is, it isn't going to work."

"What? Why?"

"Well for starters, was your plan dependent on the closest Ender Portal being nowhere hear here?" she asked smugly. Rythian stayed silent, because that was exactly what his plan was based on. "I thought so. I hate to break it to you, but the nearest Ender Portal isn't even fifteen miles away. Not nearly far enough for you to get any form of a head start."

"Impossible. Fifteen miles? I would have known if it were that close," Rythian said. He tried to keep himself calm, but if Terra was telling the truth, he had every right to be afraid.

"There is—well, _was — _a village over it."

"_Was_?" Rythian asked.

"I destroyed it."

"You see, Rythian? She just _admitted_ to destroying _another_ village! She hasn't changed at all! I can't let you go with her, Rythian," Lalna shouted.

Terra looked like she was barely restraining herself from strangling Lalna. "Look, Lalna. It isn't exactly uncommon knowledge that I'm not a good person, but I know you're a little slow on the uptake, so I'm going to spell this out for you," she said condescendingly. Lalna bristled while Terra continued slowly, as if talking to a child.

"I am literally doing this for the sole purpose of saving my own ass. The fact that I'm saving all of you in the process is simply a very unfortunate side effect. I never once claimed have turned into a good person or to have improved myself in any way since you saw me last, because that isn't true. I _am_ evil. I _do_ hurt people. After this battle, if I survive, I'm probably going to go back to killing people for fun. So can you stop saying I'm still evil like it's some big new discovery?"

Lalna glared at her. I'm simply pointing out that aiding the person that tried to kill us is a completely idiotic move on Rythian's pa-"

"Lalna," Rythian said, his voice full of warning. "You've made your point. I'm still helping Terra, so you really should stop this."

"I'm really sorry, Rythian, but I can't let you do this," Lalna said, before pulling out what looked like two modified mining lasers and training one each of them. "I'm going to kill Terra, and I'll shoot you in the leg if you try to stop-"

Before he had even finished the sentence, Terra had teleported behind him and pulled the lasers from his grasp. She kicked in the backs of his knees and made him fall over onto his stomach. She dropped to the ground, planted one knee on the small of his back, pulled his head up by his hair, and held a large knife under his chin.

She looked ready to kill him, but she stopped and threw a pleading glance in Rythian's direction. "Rythian, please."

"Let him go, Terra," he deadpanned.

"Please, Rythian, I won't kill anyone else, just Lalna, please."

"Terra, I said let him go."

"But he threatened us both! Please, at least just let me cut him up a little so he'll learn not to mess with either of-"

"Terra," he cut her off. "The deal was that you wouldn't harm anyone here. Are you really planning on going back on it this soon?"

Terra sighed, then pulled Lalna's hair harder so he was looking up at her. "You. Got. Lucky," she growled each word, then pushed Lalna's head into the sand and teleported back to where she'd been standing.

He stood, visibly shaken, and turned to Rythian. "She almost killed me!"

"And I could have let her."

Lalna's eyes went wide. "You wouldn't have. You made her let me go."

"Only because your death would have broken our deal. Lalna, you threatened us with guns, for Christ's sake! You really didn't expect her to try to stop you?" He took a deep breath before he continued. "Look, I warned you and everything. Thanks for the weapon parts, but I really think you should go now, Lalna."

"Fine. But when she kills you and comes for us, my last words are going to be 'I fucking knew it'."

Lalna picked his lasers up off the ground where Terra had dropped them, and left. Never once did he look back.

Terra turned to Rythian. "Alright. Now that he's finally gone, I think we need to start planning."


	8. Chapter 7

"So it's pretty obvious I know a lot more about what's going on than you do, so what I say goes, alright?" Terra asked, not bothering to wait for an answer. She walked over to some boxes covered in loose mechanical parts, and shoved them all to the floor without a second thought. She pulled a large map from her pocket and unfolded it over the boxes.

"Terra, I-"

"Look, we're here," she paused to jab a finger at a mark on the map, "And the portal is here," another jab, "So it wouldn't be much trouble for the queen to come over here for a snack if she defeats us. That's why running wouldn't work to save your friends- she'd be able to come here on her way back to the portal anyways. There's no point leaving them here, so they might as well help us."

"Yes, but Terra-"

She picked a pen up off the ground and started marking out directions. Every time she showed Rythian someone's position, she would mark it with an X. "Now, I have a camp set up pretty much directly over the portal. If we get her right when she comes up, we might be able to surprise her, which would be a huge help later on. You and I would be here, doing most of the actual fighting the Queen. I doubt anyone else knows as much about her attacks and weaknesses as us.

"Of course, I don't think the Queen would come without backup, which is why I'd have your lizard and maybe a few others out to the sides sniping Endermen. From what I saw back in the room I had you all in, some of you were really good at close combat. The huge guy that I stabbed with the dagger, is he still around?"

"Yes, Strippin is fine, he's just-"

"Good. Now, there's a forest near the portal, so the forest spirit will be a huge help there. The kid that lives with him, Timmy or whatever, he's pretty fast. He managed to keep up with me when I was trying to run, and left a pretty good scar on my leg. I'm thinking he and Strippin will be down here with us, protecting us from Endermen that manage to get by the snipers. We'll probably need a few more people with them, but I'll figure out who later."

"Terra, what-"

"Jesus Rythian, _what_? Spit it out, already."

Rythian glared at her a moment before speaking. "Well first, what makes you think I'll let the others come help us fight? I want to protect them, and I don't think putting them in the center of the battle is very safe for any of them."

"Rythian, I already told you they aren't safe where they are. Even if you manage to get all of them on the run right this second, they wouldn't be able to get far enough to make the Queen give up her search for them. They'll be safe when the Queen is dead, and we have a much better chance of killing Her if we aren't alone. Believe it or not, the center of the battle is as safe as they're going to get."

"I just don't want-"

"Let me guess- you don't want Zoey out there fighting?"

"I don't want _anyone _out there fighting! But yes, I'd feel a lot better if Zoey were somewhere else during this."

"And you say you don't love her," Terra muttered. "Rythian, she's an amazing fighter. She came really close to hurting me when we were in that room." Rythian still looked uncertain. "Alright, fine. Does she still have a flame ring? She's already a pretty decent shot, with a little more training I guess she could be another sniper. That's about as far from real action as you can get. She'd have some kind of cover in the woods or a mountain, and she'd only have to hand-to-hand fight any Endermen that see her position and teleport to her."

"That's really as far from danger as you'll put her? Terra, I promised I'd protect her. I can't let her get hurt."

"That's as far as I can go without taking her out completely, which we can't afford. Think about it from her perspective. The person she cares about most in the world is out fighting something dangerous, and every single gets to help except for her, because _you_ think she's not good enough to defend herself."

Rythian hated to admit it, but that was most likely exactly how Zoey would view the situation. If he tried to keep her away, she'd probably just sneak back to fight, which would be even more dangerous. "Fine. Zoey can snipe."

"Great, I'm glad she has your permission," Terra sneered. "Now, I have this pretty well thought out, but I don't know how almost any of you fight. I definitely want Strippin and the forest spirit's friend down with us, fighting the Endermen that come out of the portal. The snipers will take care of the Endermen that come from around us, because trust me, there will be a lot of them. Any Enderman in a 100-mile radius will want a chance to show off and help the queen by killing us. Your lizard and Zoey will snipe, and I think Lalna will have some guns or something. He can shoot, too."

"This is all for the middle of the battle, though. What happens when She first comes out? Do we just start firing the second we see broken ground?"

No, I have a plan for that too, actually. What's the name of the tall guy, the one that works at the bullshit dirt company?"

"That would be Sjin."

"When I was talking to him, he seemed pretty competent with machines and wiring. Lalna is too, and you're alright at that kind of thing. I figure the three of you can work together to rig some kind of trap to go off the second she exits the portal, and maybe another when she comes out of the ground."

"Work together?"

"Yes, why? Would that be a problem?"

"Well, not for Lalna or I, but I'm not sure how happy Sjin will be to have to work together with us."

"I'm sure you three can figure something out. From what I've seen, the dwarf is completely useless with technology, and the spaceman only know how to recreate what he's already seen. He's barely competent enough to use the machines he currently has, I doubt he'll be able to create something entirely new."

"True, and the others aren't much better. Lalna had to help Hannah with anything technical, and Toby and Martyn have never had much of a need to work with machinery. Strippin and Benji have some knowledge of how to use rail systems, but I don't think we'll be needing those much."

"I don't know, what if we dug a tunnel through the mountain the snipers will be in, then lay a track between each position? Each person could share food, ammo, messages- whatever they needed to. It would make it easier on them, and if Strippin and Benji can set something like that up, it might help."

"True, I guess that could work. Show them where the tunnels and stations need to be, and I bet they'll dig out and set up the whole mountain for sniper use."

The two carried on like this for over an hour. They traded a few snide remarks, but for the most part there was next to no hostility. They had both forgotten who they were working with, and focused only on the plans in front of the both of them. They became so immersed in the map that they didn't notice the sound of footsteps coming up over the wall.

"Terra, I think if we move this group over here, it'll make-"

"_Rythian_!" a voice shrieked. Terra only had enough time to look up before a bright red light shot within inches of her face. She dropped to the floor behind the boxes immediately, silently cursing herself for not taking Lalna's weapons earlier.

"Zoey, stop! _Stop_!" Rythian screamed, running out to her and grabbing her arms. Zoey jerked away and raised her robotic arm back in the direction of Terra. Absently, Rythian noticed she'd managed to put some kind of laser on it.

"Rythian, please tell me you weren't just doing what I think you were just doing! Tell me you have it captured and ready to kill, and that you weren't just working with it."

Terra poked her head up over the table. "Nope. Here, not captured, hopefully not about to die," she said, then ducked back down when Zoey fired another laser in her direction.

"Rythian, I want you to explain why that _monster_ is back here alive, and why you looked like you were working with it."

"Hey," Terra called, not daring to raise her head again. "_It_ has a name, you know. And I'm working with Rythian to save _you_."

"Zoey, please put your, ah, arm down. Terra isn't here to hurt anyone. She'll stay over there, if it makes you feel better. She's here to help me"

"Rythian, last time that thing tried to help anyone, it almost killed us all."

"Yeah, well if you don't let me help you this time, you're _really_ all going to die. Funny how that can change, isn't it?"

"Terra, you aren't helping," Rythian groaned.

"I'm not here to help, I'm here to save my own ass. You know that. If Little Miss Laser over there isn't happy with it, that's not my problem. I'm just keeping her and everyone she knows from dying, no big deal."

"Rythian, tell me it's lying. You aren't really going to trust it again, are you?"

"Zoey, I think we need to talk."

Zoey was silent a moment. "Fine. But if that _thing_ comes any closer to me than it already is, I'll aim my next laser at its face."

"Thanks to your boyfriend, _she_ has already had much worse happen to her face. _She_ would also appreciate if you would stop calling _her_ an _it_," Terra snapped back.

Rythian groaned. This was going to be a longer day than he thought.

* * *

Almost half an hour had passed since Zoey first arrived home, but not much had changed.

"Rythian, I'm sure you have your reasons for thinking this is anything other than insane, but I'm not letting you work with her."

"Look, robo-freak, I already told you I'm working with him to _save you_."

"Don't call me that," Zoey growled. "And you never said that. You said you were doing this to save _yourself_."

"Yeah, well saving you is an unfortunate side effect of the saving myself part. Either way, I save your metallic ass, so why are you complaining? And I'll call you whatever I want, robo-freak."

"Terra, please don't call Zoey that, you're only making her angrier, which is exactly what we don't want," Rythian said. As usual, he was ignored.

"_I'm_ the freak? Last time I checked, I never used _my_ powers to hurt people! Although if you keep talking like that about me, I could start now." Zoey raised her arm in Terra's direction as she spoke. A small light began to glow at the end of it.

"Rythian, I'm not allowed to hurt her, stop her from hurting me!" Terra cried, ducking back behind the boxes.

"Zoey, I have her word that she isn't going to hurt anyone in Yog's Knot. Please don't shoot her with your laser," Rythian said, but not bothering to make any move to stop Zoey.

"Thanks for the help, Rythian, I can tell you _really _want this plan to work. Good luck killing the Queen once your girlfriend _shoots me in the face with a laser_."

That prompted Rythian to stop Zoey. Zoey, however, had already lowered her arm and was facing him. "Rythian, what does she mean? I thought you and I were going to go out and do this."

Terra began to laugh from behind the boxes. "Was _that_ what you told her? Sorry to break it to you, robo-freak, but Rythian was doing this without you. At least, I'd assume so, considering he knew it would be a suicide mission."

"A _what_? Rythian, you said we were going to sneak off and kill the Enderbabe. You said it would be easy, and we'd be back in no time."

"First off, I ought to kill her you here and now for calling my Queen _Enderbabe_! Second, You are going to be helping Rythian and I fight Her, although I'm not sure if _easy_ will be the word to describe it."

"Zoey, please, try to be a little respectful of the Queen. If you aren't doing it for Terra, do it for me."

"Fine. So why's she here to help fight the Enderb- to help fight the Queen?"

"Terra's shown me how hard the fight is actually going to be, and what the consequences would really be if I lose. I can't afford to let that happen, and as horrible as it is, my best chance of victory is if I fight with her."

"You're not just fighting with me, you know. Tell the tin can over there what we've been talking about for the past hour."

Zoey's eyes widened, and she glared first at the boxes protecting Terra, then at Rythian. He took the hint.

"Terra, stop making fun of Zoey. Our deal was that—"

"Our _deal_, Rythian, was that I wouldn't physically hurt anyone here. If you take away my ability to make fun of people, I think I'll legitimately explode." She thought for a moment, them grinned. "Wait, I'm sorry, or is 'explode' a bad thing to say around you? That's how you lost your arm, isn't it? The explosion from the nukes?"

"Rythian, make her stop that!" Zoey was nearing tears. She wanted to go over there herself and make Terra stop, but she knew better than to try. Rythian opened his mouth to speak, but Terra was already talking again.

"I suppose I could be jealous of the fact that you have a robot arm, but I'm just glad you know how it feels. You're not a human anymore, Zoey. At least, not in the eyes of other humans. You're half-human, which means to others you're _sub_human. You see how it is now, to be less than others? How you feel, knowing that others will never see you the same again? Most will think you're a freak. The rest will pity you. 'I wonder what terrible things that half-Enderman girl has done today'."

Terra froze, catching her mistake. Zoey had missed it; she'd broken down in tears halfway through Terra's speech. The realization of what she'd just said caught up with Terra, and she suddenly had the overwhelming need to leave. She said a quick "I really should leave now," and teleported up over the walls.

"I think that would be best," Rythian said to the empty air when Terra had gone. He bent down and helped Zoey up from where she'd sunk to her knees. He comforted her and helped her over to the beds, waiting with her until she was asleep.

When he no longer needed to wait with her, he stood and walked over to the map Terra had left behind. He stared at each little X on the page, knowing they were all people he'd need to convince to help he and Terra.

_How,_ he wondered, _Am I supposed to convince others to help Terra, when I'm not sure I want to help her myself anymore?_


	9. Flashback Part 2

"J, I want you to think. Have those humans ever really done anything for you?"

"Well, they—"

"Not killing you doesn't count."

"Oh. Uh, no, they mostly just threaten me."

"So tell me, why haven't you fought back yet?

"Have you _seen_ the village? It's huge. I could never take down something that big on my own."

"Well, you're not on your own now, are you? And if your next reason is 'because you'd feel bad doing it', I want you to listen really close to this. I grew up in a human village. I realized when I was still a child that they didn't care about me. That's why I didn't care about them when I reduced their village to rubble. If you're going to work with me, J, rule number one is don't form emotional bonds. Besides, think about it the way the Queen does. She'd never care about killing humans. She'd think of it as a benefit to the world. You might actually regain favor with the Queen, even after your line of 'work'."

"Whoa, Terra, who said I was going to work with you?"

"You mean you aren't? You can honestly tell me that you're truly happy with living here? It's obvious you don't like your end of your 'deal' with the humans, killing your own kind to earn the respect of those who will never call you their own. The only reason they don't try to kill you is because you protect them- something I'm sure you wouldn't be terribly sad to give up. Of course, if you don't want to come with me, that's fine. I suppose I could just leave you to deal with them on your—"

"Well, don't leave just yet! What would I have to do if I go with you?"

"Well first off, you'd have to prove yourself by helping me destroy this town. After that, I have some revenge I'm planning. I'd need a bit of help setting that up, if you think you're up to it."

J looked at all of his belongings, his eyes coming to rest on an Ender Pearl in a glass case on a shelf. His expression hardened, and he nodded slowly. "I'll help you. Where do we start?"

Terra smiled. "I knew you'd make the right choice. I'm going to go walk through the town and get a feel for how big it is, where the weak points are, and if there are any homes or shops worth raiding before we destroy them. Don't go with me—from the way you described it, the humans don't sound fond of you, and I'd prefer not to attract attention by walking around with Public Reject Number One."

"Of course. You do that; I think I'm going to go around and disable my pit traps around the village. I have a feeling I won't be needing them much longer."

"Perfect. Let me just do this, and I'll be off." Terra stood from the bed and said a few words, willing a morphing spell to change her appearance. She became shorter, and her eyes changed to a less notable color. All of the scratches and wounds healed over as well.

"How'd you do that?" J asked, amazed.

"Simple morphing spell. It's only temporary, and I'm not actually healed—I can still feel all those bruises and cuts, they only appear better. If you knew who I was, there's a good chance someone in there knows approximately what I look like. I'd rather not be recognized as a mass murderer right before I commit another mass murder."

He smiled. "Right, that makes sense. You go, and I'll meet you back here when you're done."

Terra left, heading in the direction of the village. She wasn't one to take in people on impulse, and she _certainly_ wasn't one to work with a partner she wasn't planning on murdering later. Something about J struck her as odd though, and she thought she should keep an eye on him. If she just happened to turn him into a less-than-stable killer while they were together, it would simply be a coincidence. Besides, there was no rule that said she couldn't teach him to have some fun.

* * *

"Did you find anything interesting?" J asked when Terra had returned to the house.

"Not really. The village wasn't quite large enough to have any major machines I could use, but I guess that isn't so bad. It'll make it more simple to destroy. There was one pretty big house on the far end, would that have anything worth taking? We could always use weapon and armor materials, and you can't go wrong with food."

"Actually, I think that house has been empty for years. I don't know who has things we could use, because you don't exactly hear gossip from the people who hate you."

"Not a problem, I bet no one in that village has anything important anyways. Besides, you look like you have enough here to get us started. That village is small, and the walls are too high to climb easily and too thick to break through quickly. I'm thinking we block the exits and burn it to the ground."

His eyes lit up at the word 'burn'. "I like the plan already. I have the materials for flint and tinder in that chest, you can make yourself some. Maybe grab some obsidian or something so the villagers can't bust through the blockade. Oh, and a sword or something to deal with any lucky survivors."

Terra was impressed with his sudden change in attitude, from apologetic and excited to cold and strategic. "All this coming from the guy who wasn't sure if he wanted to even speak to me a few hours ago. I'm ready to start whenever, do you want to do anything first?"

"Not at all. If we wait, they might catch on to something. I never once entered their village with a weapon or anything to protect myself, but they still threatened and attacked me. People who attack the defenseless shouldn't be given a chance to defend themselves."

Terra fished out some obsidian, iron and flint, along with a few extra items she thought she'd need. She handed the obsidian over to J before constructing a few sets of flint and tinder. She had a feeling she'd be able to go through all of them. J threw his obsidian into a leather bag he slung over his shoulders; Terra found a bag and did the same, keeping all her flint and tinder sets. "I don't suppose you know how to teleport? That would make the actual burning the village a lot easier for you."

"J looked amazed. "You can teleport? I mean, like as far as a real Enderman? I've been practicing, but I can only go a few feet."

Terra laughed. "Alright, I have a lot to teach you when we're done with this. It'll be fun, just you watch. I can do a lot, and I'm sure I could teach you some of it." She smiled, and then focused back on the matter at hand. "There are two entrances to the village, when you go to block them start with the one facing this way. I'm going to set something up in the center of the village to distract everyone, and that's when you start building. Build from the inside of the fence, so you're trapped in the village when it's finished.

"That's when you start burning. Most of those houses looked wooden, and I'm pretty sure I saw some wheat fields. They'd be dry by now, so you can start there. Keep away from the center of the village at first; I don't want anyone seeing the fires too early. Once they do notice you, just make your way over to the other side of the village and brick up that entrance. I'll keep the villagers occupied until you're done, then I'll get us out of there."

"How do I know when to start building?"

Terra grinned. "Trust me, you'll know when I make the distraction. Now let's go- I don't want to do this after the sun sets. The light from the fire will be too noticeable." J nodded, but he looked uncertain. "J, you're not having second thoughts now, are you?"

"Well, what if we mess something up? And they've never really hurt me that badly, it's not so terrible living out here, I think I'm—"

"J, if you don't want to do this, that's fine."

"Really?"

"Of course. I'm still pretty hurt. If you want to stay here alone, never discovering how powerful you really are, that's fine by me." J looked uncomfortable, and shifted from foot to foot. Terra held back a smile. "And if you want to go back to _murdering_ your brethren in cold blood, simply so those _lesser beings_ in that village won't try to kill you, I guess you—"

"Let's go." J said, grabbing a sword and storming out the door. Terra grinned. She was going to have a lot of fun manipulating someone like him.

J stood outside the village entrance, fuming. He knew he'd overreacted earlier, but he couldn't let Terra think he was having second thoughts on this. He turned around just as Terra walked up and into the village, muttering a "Good luck, kid," as she went by. He stuck his head around the corner of the wall and watched as Terra slowly walked into the center of the village.

She looked around and grinned. A few people were walking by, and regarded her with confusion. She cupped her hands around her mouth and, using what must have been some kind of power to amplify her voice, screamed a greeting out to the houses and shops.

"Good afternoon, _shitlords_!" People began to gather around her, some angry with the call, others waiting to see what she would do next. "_Hey_, you'd all better get out here! I want to see all you lazy fatasses over here, pronto!" People were getting mad at this point. One man stepped up to Terra and said something J couldn't quite make out.

"Sir, if you're going to make threats, I believe I should too!" Terra answered, reaching into her bag and digging around. She looked up at the crowd. "If any of you try to run, I'll kill you where you stand," she growled. Her voice was low, but it carried enough that everyone including J could hear her. She pulled her hand out of her bag, and with it, a block of TNT. One woman screamed, the rest were ashen. Many people backed up before remembering Terra's threat. She stuck her hand in and drew out three more pieces of TNT, arranging them in a neat square. The next thing she removed was a flint and tinder.

She singled out one person in the crowd. "You, sir, is this everyone in the village? Are you completely sure no one is still in the houses?" The man did a quick head count before saying something back to Terra. She laughed. "Good, good, wouldn't want anyone to miss this."

Someone else took a step forward, laying a hand on the sword at his side. He was shouting, and J managed to hear what he was saying. "What makes you think you're able to do this? There are so many of us, we could kill you before you get a single spark close to the fuses."

Terra smirked. She had a smile in her voice, but the tone of her next words chilled even J to his core. "I don't think you want to do that."

"And why should we listen to you?"

Terra laughed, and it was enough to unnerve the man. Instead of answering, Terra closed her eyes. As J watched, the morphing spell wore off, and J was sure another one took hold. She became a more exaggerated form of her regular self. She grew to eight feet tall, then ten, then nearing twelve. She grew more muscles and her nails lengthened, becoming claws. She grinned, and her teeth had become pointed and fang-like. She was now a hulking monster, her already shredded clothing only adding to her appearance. All of the covering on her wounds disappeared as well, and the scars that reformed on her face mangled what was already a disturbing smile. When the changing was complete, she opened her eyes, which now shone with a neon purple glow.

"You . . . You're one of _them_," the man said, his voice shaking.

"Yes, I am," Terra boomed. Her voice was somehow deep and shrieking at the same time, and it seemed to come from every direction. "And _we_ are not happy with you. I am not just one of _them_; I believe you all have heard of me. I am Terra." The villagers recognized the name, and in that moment, every villager there realized they had no chance of escape.

J was petrified. For a fleeting moment, he wondered if he'd made the right choice in joining Terra. He snapped himself out of it, however, and realized that if Terra was going to provide a distraction, this would be as good as it would get. He ran inside the walls, bricking up the entrance as quickly as possible. He began setting the bases of houses and stores alight, never staying in one spot longer than necessary.

Halfway through the town, he came across the wheat field Terra had mentioned. One spark set the whole field ablaze in seconds; flames spreading through the dry wheat as if someone had watered it with gasoline. That caught the villager's attention, however, and many of them screamed and turned to find J standing in front of the field. Terra drew their attention back to her with another threat.

J ran house to house, leaving behind columns of flame eating at the wood and licking the sky. Thick, choking black smoke filled the air above the village. J made it to the second village entrance and piled the obsidian up, struggling to breathe. He tried to get back to the center of town, hacking and coughing as the smoke billowed around him. Halfway there, Terra noticed him and bid a quick and temporary farewell to the group in front of her. "You should go ahead and try to escape now. I'll be back later, and it'll be more fun to watch you run."

She teleported over to J and lifted him up easily. She looked around, teleporting up and setting him on top of a wall out of the way of the smoke. "You stay here, I'll be right back. You missed a few houses. I'm going to finish these, then we can get to work on the people." She flashed a grin, then teleported down and took a flint and tinder from her bag. J watched for a moment as she teleported on top of houses, lighting up roofs and higher floors. After a moment, something drew J's attention away from her, and he looked down at the people on the ground.

He knew these people. A part of him was telling him this was all wrong; he shouldn't be killing anyone here. This went against everything he had tried to do, and he should feel overwhelmed with guilt. Another part of his brain, however, was laughing. It was telling him to revel in the destruction and chaos he'd caused, and that he shouldn't feel the slightest bit guilty about killing the people that had hurt and threatened him for so long.

That side of his brain was speaking with Terra's voice.

He looked back down at the people running and frantically clawing at the walls in the hopes that they would be able to climb the fortress that now served as their prison—and their oven. He recognized some people, other people he had never seen before in his life. He hardly noticed when Terra teleported up next to him again. He was watching something unfold through the bubbling, melting glass of a window.

A young girl, no more than eight or nine, had tried to hide inside a house. She'd gotten herself backed into a corner by the flames. J wanted to stop looking, but he could not tear his eyes away from the scene. The girl looked around, then closed her eyes, clenched her fists, and stood perfectly rigid as the flames roared around her. A crack filled the air, and the roof of that house caved in on top of her. He wasn't sure if it was his imagination, but J thought he could hear her scream all the way from his position.

Tears filled J's eyes, but the blazing heat from the flames in front of him dried them before they could overflow. He turned to Terra, and found her watching the same thing he had been. "That's tough," she murmured.

J wanted to leave; he had to get away from the heat of the fire. He couldn't bear to listen to the cacophony of noise in front of him. The roar of the flames and the screams and pleas of those trapped filled his ears.

"I think . . . I'm gonna . . ." J trailed off, then leaned over the outside edge of the wall and threw up. Terra glanced over, pulled a disgusted face, and then grinned.

"Not quite used to it yet, huh? Don't worry, it gets easier. You're with me now. You have nothing to worry about."

J couldn't look back at the blazing wreckage of the village. Terra's words rang around in his head. _You're with me now. You're with me. You're with me._ That one sentence, over and over and over. He was with her, now. He had decided to stay with her. Then, of course, there was the second part. _You have nothing to worry about_.

Somehow, J thought that was very, very untrue.


	10. Chapter 8

"But do you two really _need_ to work together? Rythian, I don't like that she's just here asking for help all of a sudden."

"Zoey, I wouldn't even have let her live if I didn't need to. I probably would have tried to fight the Queen on my own anyways if it didn't endanger you and the rest of the people here."

"She isn't staying here."

"Of course not. She said she already had a base set up by the portal, so she'll stay there."

"What was all that she was saying about how I'll be helping fight too?" Zoey's concerned expression vanished and her eyes lit up. "Do you guys trust me enough to go help kill the Queen with you?"

Rythian smiled at her sudden excitement. "Well, sort of. Everyone is going to need to help with the fight in some way."

"Everyone? Good luck convincing them."

"If they don't help, the Queen will kill them. I suppose they don't have to help me, but it isn't much of a choice."

"So what am I going to be doing?"

"You, Teep, and maybe Lalna and a few others will be in a mountain nearby, shooting at any Endermen that come from around us."

"I'm a _sniper_?" Zoey asked. "Don't get me wrong, that's awesome and everything, but can't I be something cooler?"

Rythian sighed. "Zoey, this isn't about you being _cool, _it's about you being _safe_. If keeping you safe means keeping you in a sniper position, I'll take it. Besides," he added when he saw her disappointment, "Snipers are great! Think about it, they work in the shadows, being all sneaky, and before you know what's happened—_bang_! You've already been shot."

Zoey grinned. "I guess that is pretty neat. A sniper it is, then. I'll be the best sniper this Queen's ever seen! Except she won't see me, because, you know, I'll be hiding in the mountain and everything. I'll be the best sniper this Queen's _never_ seen!"

Rythian laughed. "I'm sure you will. Now come on, Terra and I were talking about who needs to help with what, and we need to go talk to the rail brothers."

Rythian and Zoey talked the whole way there, Rythian laughing more than he had in a long time. When they finally arrived at Strippin and Benji's home, they were not surprised to see the pair out front arguing.

"And _I'm _saying that it needs to go— oh, hey Rythian, Zoey. What're you two doing out here?" Strippin asked.

"We need to talk to you guys. It might take a while," Zoey said.

"Of course. Benji, can you move this box, and we'll go inside?" Rythian's stomach sank at the simple question. Strippin should have been able to lift that crate without a problem. During the fight in Terra's trap, Terra stabbed him in the back with a dagger. Thankfully, it had missed his spine, and with some help healing from Rythian and Lalna, Strippin could still move almost normally. Of course, they could not completely reverse all the damage done, and Strippin could not lift as much or hit as hard as he used to be able to.

Once everyone was together, Rythian decided the best way to ask them would be to tell them exactly what was happening.

"We need your help. The Ender Dragon, my Queen, wants to kill me and everyone here. I have to fight it, and I can't do it on my own."

Strippin looked incredulous, and Benji just laughed. "You're funny, Rythian. A huge dragon is coming to kill us, oh _no_!" he said sarcastically. "So jokes aside, what did you really need to come talk to us about?"

"Benji, I-"

"This _is _a joke, right? There's no way you're actually telling the truth right now," Strippin said. Rythian just shook his head. Zoey stayed silent.

"You brought the Ender Dragon _here_? Well if she only wants to kill you, you could-"

"Benji, if you're about to suggest that Rythian lets himself be killed, I'd stop talking," Zoey said. Benji didn't say another word. "Besides, the Queen isn't just after Rythian, she's after _everyone_. The only choice we have is to fight together."

"So that's it, then?" Strippin asked. "You just came over here to say 'we're probably all about to die, so you need to help us fight'?"

"Essentially, yes. I'd also need your help with setting up a rail system in a mountain near where we'll be fighting."

"Rails? Now _that_ I can do. But fighting the Ender Dragon? Rythian, don't you think we're in a little over our heads here?" Benji asked. Strippin just looked on, suspicious.

"Unfortunately, you and the others are the best I can manage on short notice."

"Short notice? When, exactly, are we going to be fighting?"

"Soon. Within the year, definitely, but I'm not sure exactly when for now."

There was a pause before Benji spoke. He was trying to sound happy, but it was very obviously forced. "Well, I guess we're in. It'll be easy, Strippin, just watch."

"Well, I wouldn't say it'll be easy, but-"

"So you guys are in?" Zoey cut in. "This is great! Rythian, you can go tell her, and then we can go talk to Lalna."

"Her? Who's 'her'? Strippin asked. "Is Lomadia helping you, too?"

Rythian groaned inwardly. Of course Zoey would accidentally let them know. "Well, I guess you'll be finding out some time. I'm not the only one the Queen wants dead, and Terra is going to-"

"No!" Strippin shouted. "No, Rythian, you can't be serious. If this is your idea of a joke, it's _not_ funny. You saw firsthand what that bitch did to me! She tried to fucking murder us! I'm not doing this. Benji, you aren't either."

Benji hesitated. "Rythian, he's right. We're more likely to die working with her than we are fighting alone."

"Strippin, Benji, it you two would listen to me, I can explain-"

"Rythian, there's nothing to explain! I couldn't lift that box out there because Terra literally _stabbed me in the back_. If she's going anywhere near the dragon during the fight, I'm not going to help."

"Strippin, your other choice is death! It is quite literally either help Terra and I fight, or stay here and be roasted. If Terra and I don't kill the Queen, She's going to come here and kill all of you. We have a better chance at killing the Queen if we have help. You two are some of the best hand-to-hand fighters I know, and I was hoping you'd help protect us. You'd just be keeping Endermen away from Terra and I while we fight. I won't lie and say it will be easy, because it won't be. But, and I hate to say this, the center of the battle is the safest place for you."

Strippin was silent, arms folded and glaring at Rythian. Benji spoke up for him. "What was it you were saying about rails earlier?"

"There's a mountain near where we'll be fighting. I want to set up little caves higher up in the mountain with an opening outside, so some people can shoot at Endermen or the Queen. I was hoping you two would dig out the caves and run a rail between each one so the people up there can send arrows and supplies between them."

Strippin and Benji glanced at each other. Strippin stood and grabbed Benji's arm, dragging him outside and closing the door behind him. The wall did absolutely nothing to muffle their conversation, however, and Rythian and Zoey could hear everything they said.

"No."

"Strippin, I think-"

"No."

"But what if-"

"_No_. Benji, I want you to honestly think about what Terra's done. Not just to me, but to everyone here. If you really think helping her is a good idea, she must have slammed your head into the ceiling harder than I thought when she tried to _kill you_."

"Strippin, I'm not saying we fight, I just think that we should help them with the rails. We'd get out of fighting, and if they win, they can't say we didn't help them. Besides, you're the one that's always complaining about a lack of things to do."

There was a pause, then Strippin barged back in the door, followed by Benji. "I decided," Strippin said, "That Benji and I will help you with the rails in the mountain. But there's no way we're going to help you with the actual battle. We'll leave or something to get away from this queen. We'll stay safe on our own, _without_ helping our attempted murderer fight."

Rythian sighed and stood up, moving for the door. "Alright, I suppose that's better than no help at all. Please, though, at least think about the actual fight."

"Won't need to," Strippin said, moving to let Rythian pass. Zoey followed, and the two began flying back to their own home. Zoey said the only thing spoken on the entire way back.

"So I guess that's a maybe from them then, huh?"


	11. Flashback Part 3

J hadn't spoken in several hours. He lay on top of the wall, moving when the heat became unbearable, watching the fire burn itself out. Terra gave up on trying to get him to talk, and went back to his house after killing the surviving villagers. She would check on him about once an hour, but for the most part she left him alone. After five hours or so, he decided to get down from the wall, when he heard a noise come from the wreckage of the village. It was still smoldering, small fires burning determinedly in some places, but J climbed down from the wall and picked his way through the piles carefully. After a minute he realized he'd probably just heard something fall, and started to walk back to the wall where he had climbed down.

The crack sounded again, this time accompanied by a sharp inhalation. J snapped his head around—someone was still alive here. He walked over to the collapsed house the noise had come from and pushed aside one of the wooden planks lying on top. A villager looked up at him with wide eyes. His clothes and hair were smoking, and he was covered in ash and burn marks.

"Please help, I think I'm stuck, I-"

J didn't let him get any farther than that. Pulling his sword from the sheath at his side, he dispatched the villager with a slice to his throat. He did it without thinking, without feeling. He replaced the sword in the sheath, and walked back to the wall. J was numb and mechanical in his movements; climb up the wall, climb down the other side, walk back to the house. When he walked back in the house, Terra turned from the brewing stand and beamed.

"There he is—back from his first pillaging! So, how're you feeling?"

J didn't say anything for a moment. When he finally looked at Terra, there was no hurt or anger in his eyes, simply an innocent curiosity. "Why do you do that? What makes you able to go do that to people?"

Terra smiled softly as she began to tell the story. The more she talked, the more distant her expression became. "J, tell me. What goes through your mind when you kill a chicken or pig for food? Absolutely nothing. You don't consider those animals to be the same as you. Whether you think they're not as good as you, or not as important, or simply just don't matter, it's all the same to you, and you kill them easily.

"It's almost the same for me. I don't care about humans, because I know they don't care about me. It might surprise you, but I lived in a human village when I was young. I tried to help the humans around me. I tried not to get in their way when I couldn't help. I was only a little girl, but they treated me the same way, maybe worse than those villagers treated you. I gave up on trying to talk to them, or interact with them at all. Around then was when I found Endermen.

"I began to talk to them, and they taught me their ways. They taught me about the Queen and Her hate for humans. They told me She hates half human hybrids like me, but the Endermen don't feel such hate and treated me the same as if I were one of them. When I realized how much the Queen hated humans, I grew foolish. I thought I could win back Her favor for me if I killed the villagers. The Endermen helped. I burnt down that village, and trapped the people. I didn't let them burn. I killed them in front of each other. I saved the ones that I knew hated me the most for last.

"That obviously did nothing to win back favor with the Queen. She didn't even know I existed. The Endermen refused to tell Her about what I'd done, even when I begged. I didn't understand why at the time, but now I know they were protecting me. She would have killed me without a second thought, regardless of what I had just done. After that, I stuck with Endermen. I traveled with a different one every few nights, switching whenever I found another. They treated me like their family, so I treated them the same way. I learned to care more about them than anything or anyone else. I never really lost the taste for destruction, though, so I kept obliterating villages. I was young, so it was partially in the hopes that the Queen would recognize me despite the consequences. As I grew up, I learned to hide what I was, and destroying the villages became a sort of game. Now I do it for fun, whenever I find a new village. I come up with new ways to destroy the villages, new head games to play with the people living there. I've only been beaten once."

"Once?" J's question snapped Terra back into reality.

"Yes, once. That's part of the reason I'm staying here to talk to you, J. I need help, and I think you'd be perfect."

His unfeeling shell finally broke, and he seemed interested, if not a bit suspicious. "Why me? You saw what happened back there. Do you honestly think that I could be any help to you at all?"

"Absolutely, with a little training. J, you have the potential to be more powerful that you could ever imagine. Stick with me, and I'll help show you how to use your Ender side to your advantage. With a little work, you could be almost as powerful as me!"

A smile crept onto J's face. "But what about the revenge part? What exactly do you have planned? Something big, I'd think."

She grinned. "Of course! A few weeks ago, I tried to destroy a village not far from here. Some of the people there managed to trap me and tried to fight me. I won't lie- they were incredible fighters. They might have beaten me if I hadn't escaped. One of the men there is an Enderhuman, like us. J, tell me something. When you go near Endermen, you can feel how powerful they are, correct? You can feel your Ender side trying to take over."

"Yeah, but I learned to control that side. That's kind of necessary when you hunt them for a living. I feel that same power from you, too, but it's a lot stronger."

"The Enderhuman there does the same thing, but he hasn't learned to control it like you have. If he lets that part of him take over, it won't be pretty. He's kept the Ender side of him locked away for so long that if it was ever released, he'd probably go on a killing spree."

"But the only people around him to kill are—_oh_," J gasped when he realized what Terra was saying.

"_Exactly_. Imagine his face when he manages to get his Ender side back under control and realizes what he's done! That's when I swoop in, rub it in his face, and kill him. It'll be great!"

"How are you going to get him to change? It sounds like just you being around him wasn't enough, and sending an Enderman to his house would never be powerful enough to do it."

"One Endermen wouldn't be, but what about hordes? He doesn't exactly have the cleanest track record when it comes to obeying the Queen or protecting Endermen. I doubt he's killed as many as you," J's face darkened, "But more than enough for me to convince any Endermen I can find to go to his house. I'll just tell them not to kill him, and leave him alone after he turns."

J thought for a moment and thought, snapping the fingers on one hand as he did so. Terra thought she could see the faintest spark fly from his hand with each snap, but dismissed it as a trick of the light. "Alright, but what if we go a bit . . . _Bigger_?" He smiled, but it wasn't kind. You just said the Queen hates Enderhumans. I doubt She'd be happy to know there's one living in peace with a group of regular humans. Having Her, with Her power near this guy would definitely change him. If She sees him turn and start killing his friends, She'd leave him to it until he finished, then kill him. You wouldn't get to kill him when it's over, but you have to admit, that would be amazing."

Terra looked uncertain. "The Queen? J, you're insane!"

"You're one to talk."

"Even _I_ think this is crazy, that must tell you something about how you're acting."

"Terra, think about it. You must know you can communicate with the End using an Eye of Ender. As long as you don't tell Her _you're_ an Enderhuman, this would work flawlessly. I'd even help you set everything up."

"But what if we die? J, what if _I_ die?"

"Thanks for the sympathy," he said, rolling his eyes. "But if we die, then we die pulling off the greatest revenge scheme _ever_, of _all time_. What do you say?"

She hesitated. "You'd help me with it?"

"The whole time. If you go down, I go down with you. Also, when we pull this off, I want my name in all the legends too."

She sighed, then smiled. "You really think we can do this?" J nodded excitedly. "Alright then, lets make an Eye of Ender."

His grin widened. "Perfect! Now, we'll need to get some Blaze Powder, but I already have the obsidian for the Nether Portal, so that'll be easy. Then, we—Terra? Are you alright?"

Her grin had slipped, and her face was pale. "Yeah, I'm fine, I just, uh, are you _sure_ you don't have any Blaze Powder already? Do we _really _need to go get more from the Nether? I could go steal some from a town nearby no problem, you know."

"It'll be quicker for me to just go, trust me. If you don't want to come, you don't have to."

She breathed a sigh of relief. "Really? J, I'm sorry, I just," she broke off, and her expression hardened. "Hold on, promise you won't laugh at me."

If J wasn't confused before, he was now. "Why would I laugh?"

"J. Promise me you aren't going to laugh. Just do it."

"I promise, I guess." He said. Terra looked down and mumbled something completely incomprehensible. He only caught one word, but it was enough to get the meaning. "Terra, are you afraid of _Blazes_?" There was a hint of disappointment and hurt in his voice, masked by a mocking grin.

"I'm not _afraid_ of them, I just . . . really, _really_ don't like them," she said. When she looked up and saw his smile, she grew angry. "Don't look at me like that! J, they can fly and shoot fire! I'm not even afraid of fire, but when it's _flying at my face_ I'm not a fan!"

"So, Ghasts too, then?"

"No, Ghasts are huge, annoying and noisy, but that's all they are. They make good targets, and they can't follow you into small places. Plus, they're dumb as all hell. Blazes are smart, they're fast, they're little enough to follow you everywhere, and they can _swarm you_. J, there's always like a dozen of them around spawners!"

J's eye twitched, and he fought to keep the smile on his face. "Terra, I think you're overreacting just a bit. Blazes are actually pretty great, but if you don't want to come with me, I'll go get the Blaze Powder myself."

"Good, I'll stay here, I guess. Maybe I'll go visit the town I've been talking about."

"You could thank me, you know."

"That doesn't mean I _will_. Besides, you laughed at me. You promised not to."

"I never laughed at you! I just smiled a little."

"You were laughing in your head. You got any more obsidian? I'll go set up the portal, if you want."

"I can do it. Thanks, though," J said, opening a chest and pulling some more obsidian out.

"You need a flint and steel?"

"Nah, I got it. I'll be back in a little while, Terra, if you go to the village, don't get caught."

"Me? Caught? Never." She smirked as she opened the door. "I'll be back later, see you whenever," she called, letting the door close behind her as she left. J saw her teleport once, then she was gone. He shook his head, and left to go build the portal.

* * *

Terra had no problem getting into Lalna's castle. She didn't know where he was, but he wasn't home. She took her time walking through the rooms, pocketing any machine parts and tools she came across. She was just exiting his lab when she heard humming and footsteps, both headed in her direction. Her stomach dropped, and she looked frantically for a place to hide. Finding nowhere, she made the most desperate move of her life. She grabbed the first thing she touched, a chunk of Lapis, and hurled it in the direction Lalna was coming from. She wanted it to sail past him and hit the wall, so he would go investigate the noise instead of walking through the doorway and directly into her.

Unfortunately, her aim was a bit off, and instead of the sound of lapis hitting stone, she heard a cry of pain, and the clatter of the Lapis hitting the floor. _I guess that works too, _she thought, teleporting up onto the wall across from the lab. She stared down at Lalna, who bent down to pick up the lapis chunk before running into the lab where she'd been standing seconds earlier. She was just about to turn away and go back to her new home early, when a glint of metal on the ground caught her eye. She listened for a moment to make sure Lalna wasn't coming back, then teleported down again.

When she realized what Lalna had dropped, she grinned. "Won't this be a nice surprise," she said under her breath, before teleporting back up onto the wall with the nuke remote. Back when she was still 'working' at Blackrock, Rythian had told her about the nukes under his base, and Zoey had mentioned her plan to disarm them. Terra's finger hovered over the button, but she placed the remote in her bag and left the castle instead. "J will want a say in this," she said to the empty air. Glancing up at the sun, she noticed she'd been gone for the better part of two hours, and began her journey back to her home.

* * *

Terra was sitting next to the Nether Portal when J came back out. He stumbled through, wheezing and patting at his clothes and head.

"You're finally back! Sure took you long enough. Did you get . . . the . . ." she trailed off and began to stifle a laugh when she saw J.

"If you laugh I'll burn the Blaze Powder and make you go get more yourself," he said through clenched teeth.

That calmed Terra down a bit, but the grin never left her face. "So I take it you ran into a little trouble?" she asked, eyeing his clothes. From the front, the jacket looked mostly intact, but the edges were singed. His pants were now shredded at the knees, as if he'd fallen and slid, and when he began to walk away, Terra saw a large part of the bottom of the jacket had been burned away, and the bottom of one of his boots had started to melt. She stood and trotted up to him, walking alongside him back to the house.

"On the way out, I ran into a group of Ghasts."

Terra was snickering again. "Ghasts? That's all? Well, you got the powder out safe, right?" she asked, poking the bag at his side.

He glanced in her direction. "Thanks for your concern for my wellbeing. Honestly, I don't know what I'd do without you caring for me," he deadpanned.

"Caring for you? J, rule one of working with me is you have to function for yourself. You don't look like you're about to die, so I'd say you're fine.

"I thought rule one was 'don't form emotional bonds'."

"Well, there're a lot of "rule one's. Rule one also happens to be don't question me, so I'd stop talking if I were you. Oh, before I forget, I found the most _amazing_ thing when I snuck over to the village again. Remind me to tell you about it when we're done with this. Now, I'd assume you have some leftover Ender Pearls from your old 'job', so we can get started right away. Eyes of Ender don't show pictures, they only transmit sound, so as long as I don't speak any English, I think I'll be fine. Let's go make this thing!" Terra said as she ran ahead of J to the house.

J smiled and shook his head. Maybe this wouldn't be as bad as he thought—he liked how his plan was going already.


	12. Chapter 9

When Rythian and Zoey had returned from Strippin's house, they found a note from Terra saying she'd be back in two days to plan with whoever agreed to fight. From there, they went straight to Lalna's castle.

"Alright, we're going to try this again. This time, _please_ don't mention Terra. I think Lalna already knows about her helping, so he won't want to be reminded of her."

"Fine, but if he asks, you need to tell him. Rythian, not telling them about Terra is like lying to them! We don't want to lie to the people that are going to help us!"

Rythian sighed, but reluctantly agreed. Just as he was about to look for a way into the castle, he heard a loud explosion from the other side. Zoey instinctively took a step towards Rythian, and Rythian a step back.

"Wh- what was that?"

"I'm sure it's fine, Zoey. Let's go talk to him, and if he tries anything funny, I'll be right here to protect you. Alright?"

"Alright. Come on then, the noise came from over here!" Zoey said, walking off around the side of the castle. Rythian had no choice but to follow.

They'd been expecting a lot of things, but a floating mass of metal wasn't one of them. When they rounded the corner and Lalna's ship came into view, both Rythian and Zoey were dumbstruck. Rythian realized he was looking at a mostly-constructed, stationary ship. As they watched, a beam of green light shot out of the bottom of the ship, drilling into the ground below. Another explosion sounded, and the dirt and gravel that had already been drilled and taken up dropped out of the bottom of the ship.

Lalna cursed and flew up to the top of the ship with his jetpack. He was trying to fix the ship, when he noticed Rythian and Zoey standing by his castle. Showing off a bit couldn't hurt, right?

"Hey!" he called, flying down to them. "So, what do you think?"

"What is it?" Zoey asked in awe, but Rythian's response drowned out her question.

"Impressive, but we need to talk."

"Oh? What about? I'm a bit busy, you know."

"Lalna, this won't take more than a few minutes. It's important."

"Well get talking then. I'm listening." Lalna smirked.

"Alright, it's about fighting with Terra and I," Rythian began uncertainly.

"That? Oh, I got to thinking about it, and I'll fight," Lalna replied.

"Now, I know you're going to say no, and I know you'll fight with me about it, but you need to—wait, what?" Rythian asked. He hadn't been expecting an agreement, let alone one that came that easily.

"I said I'll fight. If it's really a matter of life and death for me like you said, I'll fight to save my own life. I'm not saying I won't _accidentally _hurt Terra—in the heat of battle, who knows what I might do?—but I'll fight."

Rythian was about to object when Zoey stepped in front of him. "Lalna, If anyone has a right to hate her, it's me. She was at my home the longest, she took the most from me, I gave her clothes and healed her when she was hurt, but she still betrayed me. Lalna, she broke all the fingers on one of my hands! Not that it matters now, I guess," Zoey added under her breath, instinctively flexing the fingers of her robotic arm, "But my point is, I'm able to look past that and get this done. If you hurt her, it'll only make her hate you more. It won't help us beat the En- the Queen, which is what we need to be focused on. Please, don't mess with her while we do this."

Lalna narrowed his eyes. "How can I trust her? How do I know she isn't going to attack _me_? Zoey, I don't understand why you still trust her."

"Of course I don't trust her! I'm not saying you shouldn't defend yourself if Terra attacks, but I don't think she will. She's just as scared as us, Lalna. Her life is on the line too, and she doesn't want to die. She's only helping us to save herself; she wouldn't be trusting us to go anywhere near her with weapons if she wasn't absolutely desperate for help. All I'm saying is, don't hurt her, accidentally _or_ on purpose, because you'll only give her more of a reason to hate everyone here. Besides, if you start hurting her, it would be easy for her to hurt you back worse and say it was defense. And you know what? I'd believe her.

Lalna glared at Zoey for a long moment, an expression she had no trouble returning. When he realized she wasn't bluffing, and she wasn't going to back down, he sighed. "Fine. You win. I'll fight with you."

"Without messing with Terra? No hurting her, no threatening to hurt her, no constantly bringing up what happened back then."

"Right. Yeah to everything you just said. Are we done now? I have some lasers to fix."

"Hold on, Terra will be back at the new Blackrock in a couple days to discus plans. You need to be there." Rythian said.

"Sure. Now, if you two will excuse me, I'll be up there." Lalna made a vague gesture to the ship before flying off. Zoey and Rythian both turned to leave as well.

"See, Rythian? It's easy to convince people if you tell them exactly what they're doing." Zoey said smugly.

Three days later, Zoey and Rythian had made their way to everyone's houses, talking with each person, explaining their problem, and asking if they could have help. A surprising amount of people agreed. Some, of course, took more convincing than others did.

* * *

_One day earlier_

"You can't be serious!" Toby shouted. "Martyn, I won't let you go!"

"Toby, what I do isn't exactly your choice. I'm helping them fight. It's for the best."

"Martyn's right, Toby. Besides, Terra said she wouldn't hurt anyone while she's here," Rythian said.

"Oh, because her word means _so_ much," Toby sneered. "Rythian, back in that room, Terra _said_ she wouldn't do any experiments too early. We all know how that turned out." Rythian cringed a bit; he'd forgotten Toby had been taken by Terra for 'testing' when she was here last. To that day, Toby hadn't told a single person what Terra did to him, not even Martyn.

"Well, it isn't exactly your decision whether I fight or not, is it?" Martyn sighed. "Toby, you don't have to fight with me. I'm not even going to ask you to—it's going to be dangerous, and you have every reason to be suspicious of her—but I need to protect this forest. I'm going to go fight. Stay here, if you really want to."

"But… but…" Toby was grasping at straws, trying to come up with any reason to keep Martyn out of the battle. "Don't you think you should wait to make a decision like this?"

"Terra is going to come back to the new Blackrock tomorrow to discuss war plans. You have until then to decide," Rythian said, standing. "Come on, Zoey, we still have a few more places to visit."

They could hear Toby and Martyn fighting the entire way out of the forest.

* * *

Together, Rythian and Zoey had visited everyone in Yog's knot, and together, they convinced almost everyone to agree. Strippin and Benji had refused, and Martyn was trying to talk to Toby about help, but every single other person in Yog's knot had seen reason and decided to protect themselves, albeit begrudgingly. Now, they were all finding their way to Rythian's home to talk.

Lalna, who had shown up first, was sitting on the wall, watching for others. One by one, everyone got to Rythian's home. It was the first time they'd all seen each other together in months. Martyn had convinced Toby to come, and the rail brothers had come to listen to what they would have to set up before the fight. Everyone was talking, but there was complete silence when someone materialized at the opposite end of the fortress.

Terra stood and stared at everyone, making no move to come closer. Several people shuffled backwards, others took steps forward, but everyone wore the same mask of pure loathing, disgust, and fear. Rythian was the first to speak.

"Terra, almost everyone agreed to come fight with us. I have the map you left here last time, so if you want to explain what's happening, go ahead."

When she seemed assured that no one was going to try to attack her, she moved towards the group. "Okay, so where do I start?"

"You could start by apologizing to us," someone in the group muttered. Terra's eyes flared, and she took a deep breath before speaking.

"Alright, I'm going to explain why that's not going to happen. First, let me ask you all a question. Answer me honestly— if I were to apologize for what I did, how many of you would believe me?"

Not a single person spoke, nor did anyone make a move to agree with Terra. "That's exactly my point. Even if I _were _to apologize, you all would just see me as more of a liar. You know I'm not sorry for what I did, and I'm not going to try to tell you different. Now, I'll assume Rythian told you _why_ we're fighting?"

"Because _you_ thought it would be a good idea to summon the Enderdragon to come kill us. Nice plan, by the way. It's working perfectly," Lalna said, rolling his eyes.

"Lalna, this is _not_ the time for your sarcasm," Terra said, turning around and unrolling the map across a table. "And the plan _will_ work unless you all listen to me. Now, since you're all going to be fighting, come—"

"We aren't _all_ fighting, you know," Strippin said from the back of the crowd.

"Oh my fucking…" Terra muttered, before turning back around to face him. "You guys are _trying_ to die, aren't you? Who isn't fighting?"

"Benji and I aren't going to fight. We'll help with any preparations, but then we're leaving."

Terra stared for a moment, then started to laugh. "You're _running?_ You two honestly believe you can _outrun_ the _Queen of the End_? You two are dumber than I thought. Maybe it's a good thing you aren't fighting."

"Or we'll hide underground, or in another village. The point is, we'll be far away from _here_ by the time the Queen shows up."

"Alright, let me tell you something, Strippin. I don't know how you're imagining the Queen of the End, but She isn't going to be thrown off if you hide in a cave. If She finds you in a village, She'll gladly destroy the _entire_ village to kill you two. It doesn't matter if She comes tomorrow or a year from now, no amount of head start is going to get you far enough from Her to be safe. If you're really going to take the coward's way out and run, I guess I can't stop you, but without as much help as I can get, I can't kill Her. And if I don't kill Her, She'll kill us, then come looking for _you_. Now, as much as I would _love_ to see your face when She comes ripping through the ceiling of the cave you're cowering in, it's not worth my death too. So I'd suggest you fight with us. At least then you have some kind of a chance."

Strippin was stunned silent, so Benji turned to him. "Strippin, she's right. I didn't want to leave in the first place, but now I'm definitely staying here to fight."

"But Benji!" Strippin cried, but Terra cut him off.

"Good choice, kid. Now, Everyone that's fighting can come over here and look at this map." She started to turn around, then paused. "Strippin? What's it going to be?"

He looked at Terra, then at the group. When he saw everyone was staring back at him waiting for his response, he took a step forward. "Fine. I'll fight, but for _myself_. I'm doing this because I don't want to die, not because I want to help _you_," he said, glaring at Terra.

"Wow Strippin, I'm hurt. I mean, it's not like that was _everyone else's_ reaction, too. Now, if we're done with this, we have plans to work on. Not far from here I have another base set up. It's right over the top of an Ender Portal, so that's where the Queen will be coming out of. I was thinking that if we rig a trap to explode when she exits the portal, we can get some damage on her before the battle even starts. Lalna, Sjin, Rythian, that's where you three come in. You're obviously the best with machinery, so I want you three to work together." Almost immediately, Lalna and Sjin began to protest, but Terra silenced them by raising her hand. "I don't want to hear reasons why you don't want to. If you three honestly can't work together for the sake of _survival_, I don't know what to tell you, other than tough luck. We're all counting on that trap working, so get it done."

"Rythian said you'd want me and Strippin to do something before the battle, too. What was that about?" Benji asked.

"Right. So I have a plan for where each of you will be fighting. The people I think have the best aim are going to be up in caves in a mountain overlooking where the Queen will come out. I need someone to dig the caves, and set up a rail and cart between each one, so the snipers can share arrows or messages or whatever. Can you and Strippin do that?"

"Doesn't sound too hard. Show us where they need to be, and we can figure something out," Benji said. Strippin only nodded.

"What do you mean you have a plan for where everyone will be fighting?" Xephos asked.

"I know some of you, like Rythian's overgrown lizard, are better at shooting than hand to hand, so I want them in the mountain sniping. Some of you are fast, like Toby, so I want you to distract any Endermen that get close to Rythian and I."

"Me?" Toby practically squeaked. "Why am I in the center of the battle protecting you? That's the most dangerous place!"

"Toby, I wouldn't have put you there if I didn't think you could handle it. You're so fast that you can attack the Endermen, then run to lure them away from us. Rythian and I have the most important job, we'll be focused on fighting the Queen."

"Shouldn't the rest of us be helping with that, too?"

"She's too powerful. If for some reason She lands, or comes close enough to the ground of you to hit Her, then attack Her with everything you've got. Unless I specifically give you a flying ring and tell you to help, though, none of you leave the ground. Endermen will be coming in hordes to try and kill us so they can show off to the Queen, and we'll need most of you down there to fight them off."

Everyone was so busy listening to Terra's plans, they only realized any time at all had passed when the sun began to set. As everyone left, she told them all to be back at Blackrock at noon in two days to start training. As soon as the last person was gone, she'd left as well, teleporting away in the direction of the soon-to-be war zone.


	13. Flashback Part 4

Terra left the cave, Eye of Ender in hand, and walked almost directly into J. "How'd it go? Does She believe you? She doesn't think you're part human, right?"

Terra smiled. "She doesn't suspect a thing. She wants me to keep contacting Her with details, and She said She'd take care of Rythian. I have to say, J our plan is going a lot better than I expected." She placed the Eye into a leather knapsack she'd taken with her.

"_Our_ plan?" J asked, chest puffed out in mock indignation. I think you mean _my_ plan."

"_I'm_ the one making this work, so unless _you'd_ like to talk with the Queen and risk exposing yourself as an Enderhuman, I mean _our_ plan. Now let me go put this away, and we can get started with the other thing I'm here for."

"You don't mean- You aren't- We're-" he stuttered.

"I _do_ mean, I _am_, _we're_ going to teach you how to harness your Ender powers," she said, and although the mocking note in her voice wasn't lost on J, he was excited all the same. In the span of 10 minutes, Terra had built (she claimed she built it, really she just stood to the side and told J how to build it) a crude training dummy for J to use.

She began talking in a slow, even voice, almost as if she were trying to hypnotize him. "J, I want you to close your eyes and listen. Remember the power you feel coming from other Endermen, or from me. I want you to concentrate on that power, let it totally consume you. Now open your eyes."

He complied, and Terra saw that both his eyes were now a glowing Enderman purple. It was dull and flickering, not nearly as bright as it could be, but it was a start. She turned him to face the large sandbag secured to a fencepost. "J, Endermen are much stronger than humans are. I want you to close you eyes again and focus on that power, then punch the dummy."

His eyes shifted to Terra questioningly. "But that's just a sandb-"

"Focus, J!" she snapped. J's eyes flew closed, and he took a deep breath before swinging a fist into the bag.

Not only did he entirely miss, hitting the pole behind the bag instead, the only damage he did was to his hand. He drew it into his chest, cursing under his breath. Terra groaned.

"J, care to explain what _that_ was?"

"I don't know, I wasn't-"

"You weren't _focusing_, is what you weren't doing. Admit it, you had your mind on other things. You need to pay complete attention to this, J. If you lose focus now, the worst you'll come away with is a hurt hand. If you lose focus when I teach you to teleport, you could end up short of your mark, which could be dangerous, depending on what you're teleporting over. If you lose focus when I'm teaching you to pass through walls, you'll end up _dead_, no question. This isn't a game, you need to care about this! Now do it again."

"Again? But my hand-"

"Will be entirely fine in the morning. Now do it again. And this time, focus the energy into your hand. Right now you can focus on the energy, which is okay, but it won't do any good if it's not where you need it, and right now you need it in your fist. So go again."

He sighed, but turned back to the punching bag and tried again. His fist hit the bag, making a solid _thwack _as it connected.

"Again, this time, use your other hand." J complied, and Terra began feeding him instructions. _Left hand, right hand, right hand, alternate between the two_. J made very few mistakes, and Terra couldn't help but feel a bit impressed.

"You're doing good, J. Now," she paused, and a smirk so small it was almost invisible appeared on her face, "how about we test your speed, Enderboy? How fast can you run to the house and bring something back? Say, an apple? Ready, go!" she cried before J had a chance to protest, or to question what this had to do with training. She leaned back against the makeshift training dummy and sighed. Maybe she could use this to her advantage, after all, if only for a little while.

When he arrived back, apple in hand, Terra realized she'd forgotten to time him. "So how fast was I?"

"Two minutes even," she lied. "Not fast enough, J. Now hand over the apple."

"You know what would make me faster?" J asked, throwing the apple. "If you taught me to teleport." He could barely disguise the hopeful note in his question.

"Wow, could you be less subtle?" she asked, smirking. "But yeah, I guess that would make you faster. Unfortunately, we aren't starting that yet. Not for a while."

"While we're talking about subtlety, you could have made it less obvious I was just getting you lunch," he said, watching Terra grin around a mouthful of apple.

"Oh, come on, J. I'm doing you a favor by teaching you all this, the _least _you could do for me is get me lunch every once in a while," she said with her mouth full. "I'll tell you what," Terra said, reaching into her bag and drawing out a small loaf of bread, "if you can catch me, I'll let you have this."

"If you had that, why'd you make me go get the apple?" J asked.

Terra shrugged. "Entertainment? Now, I'm waiting." She turned and ran to the edge of a shallow pond, then turned around to wait for him. He sprinted towards her and lunged, only to land flat face-first in the water. He lifted himself up out of the water, sputtering, and turned to see that Terra had teleported several yards in the opposite direction, and was doubled over laughing at him.

"J, you can go swimming a little later, we have stuff to do!" she called through the laughter.

J saw red. He pulled his feet from the mud at the bottom of the pond and charged at Terra, hell bent on tackling her to the ground. His feet pounded the ground, but suddenly his head felt light, his stomach hitched and it felt like he was falling. He blinked and tripped over his own feet, tumbling head-over heels to stop at Terra's feet. He felt his cheeks burn pink and looked up, expecting to see Terra laughing at him more. Instead, he found her staring wide-eyed, mouth agape.

"Alright, I know I fell, but you don't need to make a show out of it, you know."

"J, you don't know what you just did?" Terra asked incredulously. She didn't wait for an answer, and walked over to where J had started to fall.

"I just tripped and fell spectacularly, if that's what you mean," he said he freed a strap of his knapsack from where it was tangled on his arm, then stood and walked over to Terra.

"Right before you tripped, did anything happen?"

"I felt like I was falling for a second, but then I actually fell, so that's nothing."

"J, you just teleported. Look how far away your footprints are here. That falling feeling was you passing through the End dimension. Normally you don't try and teleport while you're going so fast, which is probably why you only went a few feet and fell over when you came out, but this is definitely a start."

"Does this mean we can start practicing teleportation today?" J asked so quickly that Terra had a hard time understanding what he'd said.

"Not today," Terra said, "But we can definitely start soon. Earlier than I thought we would, for sure," she added when she saw J's expression go from impossibly hopeful to crestfallen in half a second flat. "Now let's keep practicing with the dummy, alright? We have plenty of time, J. You don't need to be in such a rush to get everything done, you know."

For the next two days, Terra helped J whenever she could. On the third day, however, she had other plans.

"But why can't you help me today?"

"J, I have other things I need to do. I've been here a whole week already, you can't tell me you aren't at least a _little_ sick of me by now. Why do you want me around today?"

"I never said I wasn't sick of you, I just need you to train me. Once I get strong enough, there's no _way_ I'm still hanging out with you! I'll probably kill you and live a new life as the _new_ most feared Enderhuman around!" J said sarcastically. "For real though, I wanted help with training today. I think I got that thing you showed me yesterday figured out!"

"Just keep practicing without me. I won't be gone to long, I just want to do a little more scouting," Terra said while digging through a chest. "Ah, J?" she asked, a bit panicked.

"What's wrong?"

"You haven't seen that remote anywhere, have you?"

"Yeah, I- wait, Terra, what are you planning?"

"Nothing you need to worry about, J."

"You can't go blow up that castle! I know you said there are nuked below their base, but you can't blow them up."

"And why _not_? Last time I checked, I don't have to listen to your orders_, you_ have to listen to _mine_. Now where's the remote?"

"Terra, you can't kill the other Enderhuman. He's the main part of the plan, if he dies in the explosion we're screwed."

"Fucking…" Terra muttered, but gave up. "Fine, you're right. I won't kill them. I still want the remote though, because if they're not in the castle, I can still destroy _that_."

"Here, take it then." J reached into his bag and handed her the remote. "I didn't want it getting lost, so I figured with me was the best place to keep it," he explained when Terra glared at him for having it. "Now don't kill the Enderhuman, but everyone else is fair game. See you when you get back, I guess," he said, then started to walk out the door.

"J, wait!" Terra called. Her stomach began to sink as she looked at the remote. "You said you had this with you? In your bag?" J nodded. "You mean the bag that landed in the water?" Terra asked, looking up at him. J nodded again, unsure of what Terra meant. Terra's face went from scared to furious, and then J understood. "J, if you broke this remote, I'll have your head, you hear me?" Terra's voice was cold and even, but J wished she were yelling. Yelling meant she'd burn out her anger quickly and be over the problem soon. This was something else altogether, and J knew she was serious. He might have just ruined a part of her plan, and she wasn't about to go forgiving him. He nodded and backed out the door

Terra followed him out and watched him walk over to the punching bag before she turned away and began to teleport in the direction of Blackrock.

* * *

Her timing couldn't have been better if she had planned it. She stood around the side of the castle and watched Rythian and Zoey stand in front bickering. Terra was just close enough to hear what each person was saying.

"But you're _sure _you know how to safely get rid of this thing?"

"Yes, Rythian. I already told you, I'm like 95% sure I need to cut the green wire," Zoey said while she practically pushed him out the door. Rythian couldn't help but notice that the percentage had decreased quite a bit since she first proposed disarming the nuke, and the color of the wire that needed to be cut had changed at least three times. He wasn't even sure if some of the colors Zoey had listed were really wires on the nukes. "Now, get the golems and wolves out of here, and take Teep with you. Not that they won't be safe here or anything, I just think it'd be better if you take them somewhere out of blast radius—I mean out of the area," she said, trying to cover up her slip by hurrying Rythian out of the castle and down the stairs. "I don't need them distracting me while I work, so you should leave now. See you later!"

He left, herding the animals in front of him as he walked. Zoey stuck her head out the door and called "Don't let Ringo out of your sight, I'll meet you at Rav's pub when you're done!" before walking back inside and going down to the room where the nuke was contained. She stopped to get her tools and a pair of goggles, then set to work on the wiring of the nukes. Despite what she'd told Rythian earlier, she wasn't sure which wire needed to be cut, or if there was more than one. She decided to pick one at random and let luck take over for her.

Terra teleported up to the top of a mountain that was far enough from Blackrock that she wouldn't be affected by the blast. She stood at the top and watched Rythian's group grow smaller in the distance, finally getting into boats and disappearing in the water. Looking down at the remote in her hand, she flipped the safety switch on the side and placed one finger over the button in the center. A gust of wind blew her jacket up, and she pushed it down, the yellow stitching in the corner catching the smallest amount of light. Terra paused, looking at the signature 'Z' Zoey had left on the Jacket she'd made for Terra after her old one had been torn. She looked from the stitching to the button and back several times, suddenly unsure if she should push the button.

In the moment Terra reached her decision, several things happened. If Terra had been paying attention to something other than the jacket, she would have noticed that she'd attracted a creeper, which was now climbing the mountain below her. It exploded with enough force to knock her forwards, directly on top of the remote's button, which clicked as she pushed it down. If Zoey had been paying attention to something other than Fishton's position on the jammer, she would have noticed that she'd knocked some of the wires out of place, which were now laying above the other wires she had to cut. She cut all the wires, which fell into each other, sparking and crackling with electricity.

Both people blamed themselves for what happened next.

The nukes began to beep, and Zoey scrambled away. The force field around them dropped, but Zoey knew she couldn't make it out in time. She'd taken off her flying ring so she could use her tools better, and she'd left it laying at the bottom of the pile of tools next to the nukes. She tried to climb the stone up to the exit, to no avail. The timer on the nukes lit up a display.

_10… _

"Fishton! Oh, Fishton, it's beeping!"

_9… _

_8…_

"Rythian," she called, tears pricking her eyes and cracking her voice. "Rythian, I miss you!"

_7…_

_6…_

"Rythian, I need you right now!"

_5…_

_4… _

"The nuke's about to explode!"

_3…_

_2…_

Zoey stopped trying to climb and curled up in the corner of the cave, shielding herself with her armor as much as possible, holding one arm out to protect her face from what she thought she'd caused.

_1…_

"Rythian, I-"

_0._

* * *

Terra returned to J's house, grim-faced and silent. She'd placed the nuke remote in her bag. If J were to ask, she'd tell him it was to be used later another part of the plan. She wasn't currently sure what that part would be.

Over the course of the next week, Terra worked J harder than ever. If he complained, she'd make him start over. He needed to, as she was fond of telling him, "Work harder and strengthen up, because if you can't do the basics without whining like a kid, I won't bother trying to teach you anything more advanced." Towards the end of the week, she thought he was ready to start practicing teleportation.

"Now J, I don't want you to try teleporting unless you're completely sure you're ready. Remember that dimension you passed through when you accidentally teleported?" J nodded. "That was the End, and if you mess up and don't go far enough, or if you lose focus, _that's_ where you'll get stuck. I don't want to have to try and fish you out of the End, so I'll probably just let you become dragon food, which, trust me, isn't the worst thing that could happen to you while we're doing this. So you're _really_ ready to try?"

"As ready as I'm going to get."

"Alright then. Think back a week ago, to when you tried to come after me. Right before you teleported, you were angry, right?"

"Yeah, all I could really think about was how you'd tricked me and teleported away, and I was only focused on taking you down because of it. Then my head hurt and I felt kind of sick, and-"

"There! That sick feeling was you letting your Ender side take over the anger, and it tried to get at me faster the only way it could—with teleportation. Of course, since you've never practiced using it, it was weak and you could only go a few feet. There's no real way to work up to this, so we're going to jump in head first and hope you don't fuck up. If you have any questions, or you're the slightest bit unsure about _any _of this, you need to ask me before you try." She continued to explain to J how to focus his energy onto a specific place, and use that energy to move through the End and to the spot he wanted. After she was satisfied he knew as much as he needed, she found a rock and set it down 10 feet away from him.

"Now, this is pretty far for a first shot, but try making it to this rock here. And remember, whatever you do, don't stop walking."

J had no idea what to make of the last piece of advice, since Terra hadn't really mentioned walking earlier, but he wasn't about to pause now. He took a deep breath and drowned out every voice that told him this was a bad idea to try, and that humans—even part-humans like him—were never meant to teleport. Focusing on the rock in front of him, he took a step forward.

In a moment that could have been missed with a blink, J wasn't in his world anymore. The only thing he could see in any direction was himself. Freezing cold silence pressed in on him on all sides, and there was absolutely nothing under his feet. He froze in place, and his mind drew a blank on how to do anything other than scream while he fell. His eyes were screwed shut, and he barely realized someone had grabbed the back of his shirt. He only opened his eyes when he felt light on his skin and heard something other than his own voice. He was lying on his back in his universe, looking up at the sky. He wondered briefly what was so loud, then realized he was still screaming and shut his mouth. Terra was standing over him, chest heaving, with a glare that could melt glaciers on her face.

"J, what the _fuck_ was that?" she shouted. "I told you to keep walking! Let me guess, you stopped after the first step? You're lucky I was able to save your ass! That was a shot in the dark, _I_ wasn't even sure if that would work! Fuck, J, I _thought _you said you were ready to try this!"

J tried to sit up and say something, but the second his head left the ground, his head began to pound and his vision went dark. He managed to turn over onto his stomach and push himself to his hands and knees before he began retching. Every harsh note in Terra's voice was gone in a second, and concern replaced the fury on her face. "Oh shit, yeah, being out in the unpopulated parts of the End like that does that to some people. I guess it doesn't help that you were falling, either. I'll go grab something for you to eat, you're probably weak as hell. Stay here," she said, as if J was capable of moving anywhere else on his own.

Terra returned a minute later with bread, and tried to help him sit up. "How about we pause with the training for a day? You won't be able to do anything if you're exhausted."

* * *

The next day marked one week after Terra had witnessed Blackrock's destruction, and She confined J to his bed while she left to go take care of other things.

"But can't I get up and do something while you're gone?"

"J, you could barely move this morning, I don't believe you got better that quickly. You can leave, but don't work on your powers, _please._ I don't need you fucking up when I'm not here to guardian-angel your ass out of trouble. It's nice having someone around that'll do whatever I say when I say it, and I don't want to lose that because you got stuck in the End again."

"Nice to know you think so much of me. So where are you going _this_ time?"

"I need to leave Rythian a little note. I had another conversation with the Queen the other day, and She said She'd take care of him. I figure it's only fair I give him a bit of warning, don't you think? Besides, it's not like he can do anything to stop Her, so I might as well get to see him freak out a bit. Lalna too, since I don't doubt Rythian will want to show him what happened to his remote," she said, taking a piece of paper from a chest and writing a note out.

**_Dear Rythian,_**

**_I'll assume you brought this remote to Lalna to accuse him of its appearance. If you haven't already murdered him in cold blood, tell him hello for me. _**

**_I wrote to tell you that you might want to pack up your things and find a nice funeral tuxedo soon. I've been talking with our queen, and She just happened to find out about a certain rogue Enderchild _****_abomination_****_ who is in a relationship with a human girl, and who has been killing his brethren without just cause._**

**_She was not happy._**

**_She is coming to destroy you and anyone that lives near you very, very soon. If you try to run, She will follow you. She will not let you get away that easy._**

**_Let me know what kind of flowers you and your friends want on your graves when this whole thing blows over. See you soon, little brother._**

**_-T_**

Terra read the note aloud to J, then folded it up. When she'd finished, he whistled. "You're smug, aren't you?"

"And why shouldn't I be? I'm holding all the cards here, J. Nothing's going to stop me."

"True, I guess. Hey, hand the note over here. I'm going to give it a little bit of decoration." Terra complied, and J drew something on the front. When he handed it back, Terra saw an Eye of Ender drawn lightly on the front of the note. "There, now prick your finger and trace over that."

Terra paused, sure she'd misheard him. "You want me to do _what_?"

"You heard me. It'll scare the living shit out of him and whoever you said he'd show this to. Think about it, they'll think you've come completely unhinged, writing in blood like that."

"Why don't you do it? It's your idea."

"Terra, just do it already. You need to go; I didn't want to stop you, just help you a little," J said, completely avoiding Terra's question.

She sighed and drew the sword at her side before pricking her finger on the end and tracing over the pattern on the front. After it had dried, she stuck it to the back of the remote and left the house, setting off in the direction of the remains of Blackrock Castle.

By sheer luck, she passed Rythian's new base. She watched him work on setting up something in the corner, then she found where Zoey was located. Rythian had her in a med-bay style room in the center of the new Blackrock Fortress. She couldn't go leave the remote inside, because if Zoey wasn't asleep, she'd be seen. Instead, she laid the remote outside the entrance, certain Rythian would see it when he came to check on her. The whole visit took less than five minutes, so Terra figured she'd go look at what she thought she'd caused.

The trip to Blackrock's ruins was longer than she had expected, and she couldn't say it was worth it. She wasn't sure what she'd expected from the crater, but she stayed nonetheless. There was metal shrapnel from the lab everywhere, and the closer Terra walked to the hole, the more she had to pick her way around. Eventually she gave up trying to climb around piles of rubble and teleported to the bottom of the crater.

Standing at the bottom of the crater, looking at the ruins of what was once her home, Terra wanted to feel. She wanted to feel pride so immense that she could rival kings in their courts. She wanted to feel sadness so consuming that she would curl up and never move again. She wanted to feel anger so righteous that she could destroy anything in her path. She wanted to feel _something_.

She didn't.

Instead, she felt empty. She was standing in the remains of an old home, just as she'd done dozens of times before. This was nothing new for her; she always destroyed the villages she visited, and often revisited them weeks later to scavenge for supplies. She'd never felt anything those times, nor had she given it a second thought. It had always been another part of her life, visiting old homes and not pausing to feel guilt. This, however, was a different kind of not feeling. Terra couldn't quite explain it. She didn't feel void of remorse and guilt, she felt void of _everything_.

It was not a good feeling. Terra went to the side of the crater and prepared to find ledges on the side to climb up, when something at her feet caught her eye. A charred fish tail stuck out of a pile of ash. What a fish was doing there, or how it had even partially survived the blast was beyond Terra, and when she poked the tail with the tip of her shoe, it crumbled into ash. She sighed, and made her way to the top of the crater, and from there, back to J's home.


	14. Flashback Part 5 (Final)

J had completely disregarded everything Terra had said before she had left, and was trying to teleport in front of the house when she returned.

"J, I thought I told you not t-"

"Terra! You have to see this! I know you said not to practice while you're gone, but I think I'm getting the hang of it! Watch," J said as Terra walked over. J closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then focused on a rock a few feet in front of him. His eyes burned purple, and he took a step forward.

And another step forward. And another. He kept walking, growing more frustrated and confused each time it didn't work. "I swear I did it when you were gone, I don't know what happened," he muttered.

"J, it's fine. Here, let's keep working on it." Terra continued working with J until the sun began to set. In that time, he managed to teleport once. "Terra, can we stop for the night?" J asked.

"We haven't even done that much!"

"Easy for you to say, you've just been standing there this whole time. I'm starving!"

Terra knew J was overreacting, but she was hungry too, so she gave in. "Fine, if I go back to the house and get the stuff to make mushroom stew, you have to cook it."

"Deal."

"Go ahead and set up the place for a fire out here, I'll be right back," Terra said as she went inside. It took her a moment of rummaging through chests to find the ingredients, but there was no flint and steel anywhere. When she emerged from the house, she called over to J, "J! I can't find any flint and steel to start the fi…" She trailed off when she saw J tending an already large fire. He smiled when he saw her walk back up with the ingredients.

"J, I thought we were out of flint and steel."

"Oh, I had one with me."

"Can I have it so I can go put it back in the house?"

"I pretty much used it up when I did this, sorry. Hey, you got the ingredients! Hand them over, or I'll make you cook," J said, and Terra forgot about the fire.

"What? No! J, I went and got all this shit for you, come on!"

"Nah, I think I changed my mind. You can cook tonight," J said, trying not to smile.

"Fine, fine. I'll cook," Terra said, turning to the fire.

"You _will_?" J asked incredulously. He'd only been kidding, he thought Terra had been as well.

"Yeah, I'll cook. Of course, if something _accidentally_ makes its way into your food, that's not my fault. What do you say, J? I think I have blaze powder somewhere, want me to make yours extra spicy?" She grinned, and her eyes glinted. J rushed to stop her. He knew she wasn't kidding, and he didn't want a repeat of the _last_ time she'd volunteered to take over cooking.

"Hey, you know, I think I'd like to cook tonight. Terra, why don't you hand me all of the ingredients, and go put back anything extra you might've brought out. _Please_," he said, and Terra laughed. She handed him almost everything, and he watched her walk back to the house with a small jar of yellow powder.

When she returned, they began talking, and Terra brought up their plan.

"I still can't believe it's working so well! So the Queen still doesn't know you're part human?" J asked.

"She doesn't have a clue."

"So, I believe a _thank you_ is in order, then," J said, grinning.

"A _what_?" Terra asked incredulously.

"Well, actually, I'd prefer a 'thank you for this amazing plan J, it was all your idea and without you none of this would be possible and I'm forever in your debt', but I guess I'll take a simple thank you."

"Fucking a, you're arrogant, aren't you?" she asked, but laughed. "Fine J, I guess just this once, I'll admit that this was pretty much your plan."

"And?" J prompted.

Terra sighed. "And without you none of this would be possible."

"_And_?" J asked again, but Terra rolled her eyes.

"J, now you're just pushing it. I'll admit this is your plan, but forever in your debt? Really?"

"Fine. You think you could be in my debt long enough to go get some bowls?" J asked, and Terra raised an eyebrow. J tried again. "Do you think that because I came up with the plan, you can go get some bowls to make us even?" Terra shook her head slightly. J paused and sighed. "If you go get a couple bowls, I'll give you the bigger serving of soup."

Terra grinned. "_There_ you go. I'll be right back." Terra stood and began walking back to the house, but froze when she saw a glint of purple around the corner. "J, did you see that?" She didn't wait for an answer before she walked towards it. "Hey, we saw you! Come out!"

An Enderman walked out from around the side of the house. Terra sighed in relief, but the Enderman growled. She tried speaking to it, and was almost scared by its response. J was able to listen in on the conversation, and although he hadn't spoken to an Enderman in years, he was able to remember the language well enough to translate in his head.

"What's wrong?"

"Why are you working with _him_?" the Enderman snarled, gesturing to J.

"He's helping me with a plan to kill the residents of a village near here. It's something personal, no business of yours."

"What does the Queen have to do with any of this?" the Enderman asked, which caught Terra off guard.

"How long were you listening?"

"What does the Queen have to do with this?" the Enderman insisted.

"We're convincing Her to destroy the village. Happy?"

"You know what he's done, right?" The Enderman asked, trying to push past Terra to get to J. Terra stopped it and held her ground.

"I know he used to kill Endermen. He did it because he had no other choice, but he doesn't anymore. It's fine."

The Enderman let out something between a cough and a growl that J assumed was a laugh. "He doesn't? So it _wasn't_ him that killed another Enderman yesterday? It looked just like him."

"It couldn't have been him. You're mistaken," Terra replied with complete confidence.

The Enderman nodded, but it was obvious it didn't believe Terra. "Fine. Tell him I wish him good luck with his plan," the Enderman sneered sarcastically before disappearing into the distance. Terra immediately turned and came back to J.

"Explain. _Now_."

"Yesterday, an Enderman attacked me. I think it was because it recognized me from when I was still doing jobs for the village. I was up on top of the mountain training, and I didn't want to kill it, but when I pushed it off me, it went over the edge of the mountain and down the other side. I tried to help it, but it was dead before it reached the bottom."

"And you were going to tell me _when_?" Terra asked, outraged.

"I wasn't. How could I? No one would believe me—I finally give up killing Enderman, and then _accidentally_ kill another one a month later? No one's going to think it was an accident. You don't believe me either."

"No, J, I believe you, really, but one of these days something's going to go really wrong because you don't tell me this shit."

Right," J said. There was a long pause. "So, I don't suppose you're still going to go get the bowls?"

"Go get your own damn bowls!" Terra said, pushing J off his seat and towards the house.

"I get more soup!" he called as he walked away.

"Not on your life!" Terra called back, laughing.

* * *

J continued to practice, pushing himself to teleport farther each time. A week later, he had worked up to teleporting a full 10 feet, and Terra made him start practicing teleporting onto raised platforms. Tougher, but J was able to do it almost flawlessly by the time another week had passed. Since neither of them saw the point in building anything special for him to train on, he would practice by teleporting up the side of the mountain near their house. There wasn't much for Terra to do anymore; as J grew more powerful, she simply sat by and watched what she had created. By the end of the third week after Terra left the note, she was challenging his speed, racing him up and down the mountains and around the valley they lived in. She was also continuing conversation with the Queen, getting details about the attack.

"Terra, I'm _bored_! Come on, you said you wanted to race me again," J said, lying on the bed.

Terra turned from the bag she was digging in to face him. "J, I never said that, and besides, I'm about to go talk to the Queen again. I think this time she's going to tell me when she's coming!" Terra grinned, and J sat up.

"You really think so?"

"J, I _know_ so. I'll be back later, alright?" Terra asked as she walked out the door, not bothering to wait for an answer. She headed straight for the cave to begin speaking to the Queen again.

J, meanwhile, laid back down on the bed. He knew Terra would want him to practice controlling his powers more, but he'd already been up the mountain and down the other side so many times, and he thought he was already amazing. He hardly needed to practice anymore, so a quick nap couldn't hurt, right?

An hour later, J was startled into consciousness by the door closing behind Terra as she walked back into the room. He'd never seen her so pale, and her eyes were wide and blank. She walked into the room and dropped her bag on the floor without a word. She set the Eye of Ender on a chest and sat on her bed, slumping into a heap and putting her hands over her face.

"Terra? You alright?"

"J," she said, hands muffling her words, "I'm fucked."

"Why? What happened?" She didn't speak another word, she just fell back onto the bed. "Terra, come on, you need to tell me, I can help."

"No, you _can't_!" she yelled, voice cracking on the last word.

J was legitimately terrified at this point. "Terra, what happened? Did she refuse to come find Rythian?" Terra removed her hands from her face, and J saw that her eyes were shining and red. His stomach dropped; Terra didn't cry. Ever. She had to be screwing with him—this was the girl that had destroyed cities and murdered people by the dozens! She didn't _cry_!

"J, She knows." Her voice, hoarse and strangled, was barely above a whisper.

"Knows? Knows what?"

"She knows I'm an Enderhuman, too."

J stopped. He looked as if he were trying to process what she had just said, as if he were trying to come up with some conceivable way that Terra had been found out. All he could say was "How?"

"I don't know. J, I don't know! I think it was that Enderman we saw the other day while we were eating. The one that recognized you. It heard us talking about all this before we saw it, and it went to tell because it recognized you. It recognized _you_," she snarled, sitting back up. Her eyes were blazing, and J swore she was beginning to look more and more like the abomination she'd become in the town all those weeks ago. "This is _your_ fault! It recognized and _hated_ you because _you_ used to kill them! You _killed_ them! J, what were you thinking? _I'm_ going to die because that Enderman had a grudge against _you_! I'm going to die, and it's _your fault_!" she shrieked, then grew quiet and pale again. "I'm going to die," she whispered.

For the first time in her life, Terra was faced with her own death. She had always thought about death, always believing that her power kept her invincible. No one could kill her—she knew, many had tried. She always assumed she'd go out from old age, or take her own life. She'd thought she was capable of handling anything or anyone that tried to stop her. She'd never considered this. It had always seemed like such a when-pigs-fly scenario, the Queen of the End rising to kill her. The Queen would never busy Herself with someone as small and insignificant as Terra, or so she thought. Apparently, the Queen had heard many things about the Endergirl that roamed Minecraftia, destroying villages and killing humans.

When Terra had been talking to the Queen, She said that She knew a great deal about Terra, but none of the Endermen would reveal her name or location, even under threat of death. They wanted to keep indifferent, but if the Queen were to come attack, they would help simply to stay on the good side of the one that could kill them all without a second thought. It would be a simple matter for the Queen to go out and find Terra, of course, but she never did. Partly out of contempt (She wanted to see how long Terra could continue exterminating the humans before she was eventually overwhelmed), partly because She just didn't want to put forth the effort of leaving the End for one being. Of course, now that She knew where not only Terra, but another Enderhuman and his group of human friends were, She couldn't pass up the chance to get rid of them all at once.

Terra was acutely aware of the fact.

"J," she said, breaking the deafening silence that followed her outburst, "My entire life I've managed to hide from death. I've invited it at every opportunity, but I've always thought I was too careful to let myself die. And now that I'm actually going to die, now that I actually have to accept it, I… I can't. I can't wrap my head around it."

J had only one question on his mind, but he couldn't form the words to ask. "Did you tell Her… Is She… Am I…" he asked, and Terra closed her eyes and sighed.

"No, J. I didn't tell Her about you." J let out a breath he wasn't aware he'd been holding, and he went numb with relief.

"Why didn't you? You could have easily told Her about me and taken me out, too."

"I _could_ have, sure, but why? What would be the point in ensuring your death along with mine? J, if I'm about to die, I don't want what I've done to die with me. I've shown you everything I know how to do, and you're just as powerful as me. You're going to get out of here and keep a low profile until after the Queen is gone, then continue with my work."

J was speechless. What Terra was asking him to do was certainly intimidating. "Terra, I don't think I can-"

"J, I just need to think about all this, alright?" she asked as she laid back down on her bed. J nodded and stood to leave, leaving Terra alone to think about what had happened.

* * *

Terra hardly spoke the next day, and every time J saw her, she looked deep in thought. Almost a day and a half went by before Terra said a full sentence.

"J, I think I figured out what I'm going to do," she said, startling J, who was brewing potions.

"You say that like you think you can do something about all this."

"If She wants to kill me, She can come try, but I'm not going down without a fight."

It was all J could do to keep from laughing. "You're kidding, right?" Terra glared at him, and his laughter died. "Terra, you can't fight Her. You're not strong enough."

"Yeah, I figured that out, thanks. And I'm not strong enough on my own, but I think that just this once I'm desperate enough to ask for help."

"But I thought you wanted me to leave so the Queen doesn't try to kill me, too," J said, confused. Terra nodded. "You don't mean humans, right?"

Terra shifted, and wouldn't look J in the eye. "Well, not _exactly_."

"Well, there isn't anyone else you'd a-" J stopped talking there, and his eyes widened. "Terra, _no_. You _aren't_."

"J, he's the only one that's powerful enough to help me! If I can get him and his friends to help, I might have a chance."

"He wants you _dead_! From what you told me, it sounds like they _all_ do! Why would they help you?"

"Because if they don't, they'll die too. They have no choice."

"But what are you going to tell them? 'Hey, I know I tried to kill you, but now I'm going to die too, so could you help me?'. Yeah, that'll go over _great_," J said sarcastically.

"They have to agree. They _have_ to," Terra repeated. She sounded like she was trying to assure herself more than J.

"I'm not letting you go!" J burst out.

Terra went deathly silent, and the pause seemed to last an eternity. "You won't _let_ me?" she asked quietly.

"No, I'm not letting you go over there. They're going to kill you on sight, you're not asking for their help!"

"I'm sorry, I wasn't aware you're capable of doing a damn thing to stop me," Terra said, and J bristled at the obvious challenge.

"Terra, I don't want to fight you, but I-"

"That's because you know you won't _win_."

"No, I just-"

"You're not as powerful as I am, and you know it. Try to talk me down all you want, I'm going, and you're not going to stop me."

He couldn't believe Terra was really being this stubborn. Could she truly not see why this plan wasn't going to work? "Terra, this is idiotic. Don't go."

"Idiotic? What happened to the J from just a minute ago? What happened to the J that wasn't going to let me leave?"

J was shaking with anger at this point. His grip on the potion bottle in his hand tightened, and had he been thinking more clearly, he probably would have been able to stop what happened next.

Terra looked like she was about to say something else, but her eyes were drawn to the bottle in J's hand. The water in the bottle was boiling, and as Terra watched, the bottle shattered from the heat of the water. J leapt back and hissed in pain as some of the boiling water splashed his leg. Terra could only stare at him.

"What?" He snapped. Terra only continued to stare openmouthed. "_What_?" Terra could only point to his face. He shook his head and turned around to clean up the glass, but stopped dead when he caught a part of his reflection in the metal of the brewing stand.

Both his eyes were glowing bright orange.

"What… what _are _you?" Terra finally managed to ask.

In that single moment, everything J had built up crashed down around him. "Terra, it's not- I'm not-"

"J," Terra said, fighting to keep her voice even, "Tell me the truth, what are you?"

"You weren't supposed to find out," J whispered.

"Those weren't Blaze powers. Tell me those weren't Blaze powers."

"Terra, don't freak out. I'm just like you," J said, trying to calm her down.

"No, no you're not," Terra said through humorless laughs. "You're _nothing_ like me. I don't know what you are, but we're _not _the same. I'm weird, but you're some kind of freak mix of-"

"I'm _what_?" J screamed. His eyes were blazing orange, and sparks crackled at his fingertips. Terra scrambled backwards, pressing herself as far back against the opposite wall as she could. "_No I'm NOT_! I am _NOT a FREAK_!" J seemed to be growing bigger in the room, which was steadily becoming hotter. "I _trusted you_! You're just like me! I'm not a _freak_! _I AM NOT A FREAK_!" At this point, J was hulking, all muscle. He looked like he could knock anyone out with one punch. His face hadn't changed much, but his eyes burned an orange so bright it looked like a blazing fire was contained in each. His Jacket had been all but shredded with his sudden increase in size, and while the rest of his clothes had mostly held together, they were beginning to smolder at the edges from the heat J was giving off. The small sparks at his fingertips had increased to balls of flame in the palm of each hand.

When J finished his rant, chest heaving, he looked around. There was smoke swirling at the roof, and when he shifted slightly, he saw that the floor beneath him had two footprints burned into the wood. When he looked up, he saw Terra.

Her eyes were glowing neon purple, and she'd grown just as much as J had in all the opposite ways. Where J was massive and covered in muscle, Terra was thin and lithe. She looked fast, her movements quick and twitchy. Her fingernails had elongated into claws, and her teeth into fangs. Her mouth had grown bigger, her head had lengthened and sharpened to the point of looking emaciated, and her eyes had narrowed into slits. She'd grown taller, and her back was hunched over far enough that the claws on her hands were brushing the ground.

J instinctively backed up a bit, but Terra's instincts had taken over the second she saw J begin to change, and she was ready for a fight. She advanced, growling softly as she did so. J knew he wasn't going to get out of this. He tensed, but Terra launched herself forward into him, sending them flying through the wall of the house. They hit the ground moving, Terra raking her claws down J's back and across his face. He rolled so she was underneath him and punched at her face, but she threw him backwards away from her. He let out an inhuman roar and swung his arms out, using the new distance between the two to shoot a ball of fire at her. She threw herself at him again, and they kicked and clawed their way farther and farther from the house, each managing to get in several good hits. Neither of them was watching where they were going, and before they could stop themselves, they had fallen into the pond near the house.

Normally, the water would have done little to them except shock them out of fighting, but in their states, they might as well have rolled into a vat of acid. Each screamed bloodcurdlingly loud, and Terra teleported up onto the grass, leaving J to pull his way out of the water and onto land. Terra lay writhing on the ground, water searing her flesh. It was having the opposite effect on J, chilling his skin to the point that it might as well have been frozen as the heat coming off his body reduced the water to steam. He couldn't move, he could only lay there paralyzed as the water hissed and bubbled on his skin. It had taken both their energy, and they had returned to their normal human forms.

Terra recovered much more quickly than J, and managed to haul herself to her feet. Without even stopping to get anything from the now wrecked house, Terra walked in the direction of the new Blackrock fortress. She was too injured and exhausted to teleport, but she didn't want to risk stopping and letting J recover while she was still around.

Once she'd made it far enough from the house, she allowed herself a moment to pause and rest, then began teleporting away to begin what she hoped would be a peaceful negotiation with Rythian.

* * *

It hadn't gone nearly as she'd hoped. Once she'd arrived outside the fortress, she paused, then teleported up onto the wall and into the camp. She was bruised and cut from her fight with J, and she could hardly stand, so she wasn't able to move out of the way when she saw Rythian pull back his arm and throw his katar. Before she knew what was happening, it was embedded in her right arm, and she dropped to her knees trying to pull it out and stop the pain. Rythian came over and pushed her onto her back. She knew he said something, but she couldn't make it out; her head was ringing and every noise seemed deafening.

She was only able to choke out "Rythian, please, I need your help," before she gave in to the pain and fell unconscious.

After everything was said and done, she began on her way back to her home. Rythian wanted her back in three days, and she had no choice but to wait until then for an answer. Any pushing for an answer before then would only hurt her chances of getting help. Only when she was minutes away from arriving back at the house did Terra realize that she had no idea what she would be walking back to. There was no way J would want to stay with her after what had happened.

She approached the house with caution, and found the wall still in pieces. She checked all around the house several times, but she didn't see J anywhere. It was only when she gave up did she see the note left on her bed. J had written then crossed out** "**If you're still alive to read this after visiting them", and the true note started below it.

**I'm so sorry for what happened. You weren't supposed to find out at all, especially not like that. I took some food and supplies. I won't be coming back. **

Terra flipped the paper over, but there was nothing on the back side. She read and reread those four sentences, but no more appeared. It was then that she realized how well and truly exhausted she was, and although it was only the middle of the day, she crawled into her bed to sleep.


End file.
